


Playing On, Insane

by LiviJoyann



Series: Klave [2]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Angst, Family, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Klaus Hargreeves Deserves Better, Klaus Hargreeves Needs A Hug, Klaus Hargreeves-centric, Klave, M/M, Protective Ben Hargreeves, Protective Diego Hargreeves, Reunions, Romance, Sequel, Sober Klaus Hargreeves
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-16
Updated: 2020-08-07
Packaged: 2021-02-28 07:22:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 67,128
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22759966
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LiviJoyann/pseuds/LiviJoyann
Summary: Klaus returned to 2019 following Dave's death. After the siblings saved the world, Klaus is left with aching sobriety, PTSD, quickly growing powers, and worst of all, no Dave in sight. However, when Dave DOES show up, they must navigate and sometimes struggle through a new chapter of their story- one that involves Dave's new ghost-hood, super-siblings, and the adventures that come with living at The Umbrella Academy.Sequel to "Neon Groves", but also works on its own.
Relationships: Allison Hargreeves & Klaus Hargreeves, Ben Hargreeves & Klaus Hargreeves, Dave & Ben Hargreeves, Dave & Diego Hargreeves, Dave & Klaus Hargreeves, Dave & Number Five | The Boy (Umbrella Academy), Dave/Klaus Hargreeves, Diego Hargreeves & Klaus Hargreeves, Klaus Hargreeves & Vanya Hargreeves, Number Five | The Boy & Klaus Hargreeves
Series: Klave [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1636351
Comments: 421
Kudos: 580





	1. Ocean Eyes

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome back, buddies! I've missed this- I really have. There's a lot to come so get excited! I know I am.

“Where’s Klaus?”

That was the million-dollar question these days, wasn’t it? Even though you’d think that he and Ben would be attached at the hip due to the whole ghost-dependency business, that wasn’t entirely true anymore. Two weeks into Klaus’s sobriety made for some badass surges in his powers. Most notably, at least for Ben, was how corporal he could stay just from being around Klaus. Four’s energy was unmistakably radiant now, even when he wasn’t trying. It was at the point where Ben could just mosey around the living world without Klaus- at least for little while. He’d have to go find him again when he had to… er… recharge? Was that the best way of saying it?

“Mm…” Ben pursed his lips and turned his eyes up while trying to focus on any kind of magnetic pull that might tell him where Klaus was, but he didn’t feel anything in particular. He assumed that he was still in the house though, due to the fact that all of his other siblings could see and hear Ben currently.

“In his room. Won’t come out. Already tried.” Diego piped up in response to Allison’s question when no one else had answers. Ben frowned at Diego who just gave him a one-shoulder shrug and a small roll of the eyes to say, “It’s Klaus. What more do you want?”

True.

They didn’t bother him to go to breakfast. When he got into his moods, he wasn’t planning on getting out of them anytime soon. Lately, he just needed some alone time and Ben tried his best to give it to him especially since Ben was the only one who truly knew what was going on with Klaus- besides fighting what he called “painstaking sobriety” anyway.

It was the reason for Klaus’s unexplained absences. His mood swings. His stubborn yet impressive determination to reach the height of exercising his powers. The reason he stayed sober. The reason he tried. The reason he forced himself out of bed in the morning.

That reason’s name was Dave.

The six of them went out to breakfast, or at least they tried. Ben tried. The others succeeded. Ben was able to sit with them in their quiet booth for a while before he started to fade- his own hands began to flicker before him and his own voice sounded more distant- more detached.

“I’ll just catch up with you guys at the house.” He said, earning a few sadly sympathetic smiles. Allison put a hand on his shoulder just before all of his touchy-feely privileges faded into nothing.

Ben found himself standing once again in the middle of the Academy’s living room. So yeah, being a ghost obviously had its major setbacks, but he was just grateful to be any part of life again. Plus, it wasn’t an eventful breakfast. Everyone was quiet and exhausted.

They had endured a pretty rough mission the other day that really knocked all of them on their asses. Ben wasn’t even going to _begin_ to try to explain the mess they created by going back in time- going back to their childhood. Let’s just say that it was going to be a while before they could clean up all the pieces. No one was leaving the Academy anytime soon it seemed.

That was fine. They were all getting along well enough.

Speaking of which, he should go check on Mr. Diva.

“Klaus?” He muttered when he stood outside the locked door. Sure, he could just phase right through it, but he didn’t want to be rude. Not when he didn’t have to. “Klaus, c’mon. You know I can’t knock, man. At least not right now. I’m fading, dude.”

Ben listened his hardest. Nothing. Not even an aggravated grunt.

Alright, now he was getting nervous. They’d never say it out loud, not with how offended Klaus would get when they did, but every time someone mentioned Klaus’s sudden absence, Ben _knew_ all of their minds flew to the possibility of relapse. It was hard to keep your thoughts away from the notion when Klaus himself was constantly preoccupied by the intense seduction of falling back into old habits.

Ben tried to have the utmost confidence in him though. He really did.

“Klaus?”

Finally, Ben just threw his attempted manners out the window and phased through the door, finding Klaus a mere lump in his bed, turned away and buried under the covers. For a second, Ben was actually worried that he wasn’t moving enough to assuage the nervous thumping in his own heart, but he quickly noticed the slight rise and fall of Klaus’s sheets.

“Dude…” He called out, making his way to his brother’s side, putting a tentative hand on Klaus’s shoulder. He was afraid it wouldn’t take, but to Ben’s delight, he felt the fabric of Klaus’s t-shirt underneath his fingertips and his hand molded around the shape of Klaus’s shoulder.

He’d never not relish the feeling of just fucking making contact with things. Amazing.

“Klaus?” He muttered again, more unsure. He couldn’t see Klaus’s face, but he knew he was upset by the way he wound himself up in his covers and refused to show his expression. He was awake- after about 15 years of living close-quarters with Number Four, Ben could easily tell the difference between his awake and sleeping breathing patterns.

And then, he saw it: the undoubtable reason for Klaus’s self-isolation and refusal to answer Ben.

A syringe was haphazardly thrown onto the bedside table, the vial half-filled with clear liquid. A belt laid on the floor, the loose remnants of the loop still formed. Ben felt his heart drop into his stomach.

_Oh. Fuck._

There was a moment where Ben wanted to be pissed. He wanted to drag Klaus out of bed, throw him against the wall and demand to know how he could be so monumentally stupid and careless and selfish and-

 _Deep breath._ Ben told himself. He forced himself to look at Klaus and really study the way he lied there- the way his shoulders were tensed into stone and he refused to show Ben his face- the way he buried himself in a shield of blankets, burrowing away from the world.

Suddenly, Six had a feeling that the only person more upset about this than Ben, was Klaus himself. He eased himself onto the edge of Klaus’s bed, depressing the mattress which told Ben that he at least wasn’t high enough to lose his ghost-world connections; Ben could still interact with the physical world. He used this privilege to reach forward and lay a gentle hand on his brother’s shoulder.

“Hey…”

Klaus instantly “wormed” away from Ben, pressing himself further towards the wall. Ben rolled his eyes.

_This child._

“Klaus. C’mon. Talk to me.”

Silence. Ben used this pause to look around the room for clues if Klaus wasn’t going to give anything up himself. It wasn’t completely turned over like Ben thought it might be- he was looking for signs that Klaus’s craving-demon took over and sent him in a frenzy to dig up hidden drugs. There was nothing out of the ordinary from his usual mess of a room though- clothes strewn about, hookah pipes on their sides, a billion half-drunken teacups and a few CDs without cases… this was all pretty normal for the space Klaus inhabited.

“Dude, I-“

“Go away.” Klaus abruptly cut in.

 _At least we’re getting_ somewhere.

“Why? So you can finish what you started over here?” Ben asked as neutrally as he could, reaching over and taking the syringe between his fingers like he was handling the most insipid of venoms. Klaus pulled his covers over his head.

“Save the lecture.”

“I-“

“Fine. I’ll do it for you.” Klaus burst from his hide-out and sat up, fiery eyes locked on Ben’s and nearly giving him a heart attack. “You can’t go one second with fucking up, can you? You know you’re not the only one affected every time you put a needle in your arm. I can’t always take care of your high-as-fuck-“

“Klaus, Klaus, Klaus…” Ben held his hands out defensively as his brother fell into a crazed rant, far from the notion of actually stopping to hear what Ben had to say. As Klaus rambled on, he got increasingly emotional. Ben could tell by the way his voice kept rising octaves.

The thing about Klaus getting emotional was that they realized it was a catalyst for his untapped power potentials. Whenever he got super excited, or sad, or affectionate, or yes, even mad, Ben was more corporal than ever. This was the case _especially_ if said emotions were directed towards Number Six himself.

So, Ben slapped the side of his head… a little harder than he intended, but Klaus got the message.

“Ow- Fucking asshole.” Klaus shoved at Ben, nearly knocking him off the bed.

“Would you just shut up for a second?” Ben steadied himself again, setting the syringe on the nightstand in case things got more physical. You never knew when you mixed Klaus and drugs. You never knew when you mixed _anyone_ with drugs. Klaus was not even close to an inherently violent person, but the instances where Ben did see him get a little catty was when under the influence.

Klaus’s eyes followed the syringe to the table and then snapped back to Ben but Six already noticed. He made a mental note to get that syringe out of here once he was done dealing with his dipshit brother.

“I was _going_ to say that relapses happen. Like… all the time. It’s just how you deal with it that makes a difference. What’s gonna happen with you lying in here alone feeling sorry for yourself?”

Klaus seemed so stunned by Ben’s gentle response that he just shook his head in confusion and stuttered out a simple,

“Uh…”

“You’re going to find solace in doing it again.”

“It was already hard enough getting sober the first time! I can’t fucking do it again.”

“You don’t even seem that high.”

“I’m not but _fuck,_ I want to be.” Klaus fell back on his pillows, staring up at the ceiling with fidgeting hands and bright, fearful eyes. Ben remembered something Klaus said about a year ago when they had a rare moment of honesty about his whole drug problem.

 _“It sucks to be scared of yourself more than anything else… Scared of what you might do- like you can’t do anything to help it.”_ Klaus had mumbled, half-asleep and fully high. Sometimes he got quite upset about his situation, but by the next morning, he’d be back to covering it up with irritating constant-humor and snappy sarcasm.

“And how is hiding away from the world in your used-to-be drug den going to help that?”

Klaus turned his eyes to Ben and then back at the ceiling. The corner of his lips slightly turned up and he shook his head in amused disbelief. Ben narrowed his eyes.

“What?”

“Since when are you so smart about this?”

Ben snorted and shook his head.

“Since forever. You just decide not to listen. Do you know how many rehab visits and group sessions I’ve sat through?”

“Well, at least one of us was paying attention.” Klaus smirked, his breathing becoming noticeably steadier and his eyes not as wild and finicky. Ben felt the own anxious beat of his heart begin to calm down. He had an inkling that the worst might be over.

“It’s okay, Dude. Really. Forgive yourself. Move on.” Ben wrapped it up with a final bow, hoping that for once in his life, Klaus would _listen_ rather than just hearing him and letting the words drift in one ear and out the other. Four sighed and pushed himself up with a shaky arm, then wrapping them around himself.

“I feel like shit.”

“Let’s get you some food.”

“Bleh.” Klaus made a sour face, but other than that, he didn’t resist. Ben stood up and waited for his brother to shakily bring himself to a stance, wrapping one of his blankets around his shoulders. Meanwhile, Ben reached for the syringe.

“I’m gonna take this, okay?”

“Yeah. Okay.”

Ben glanced down at the liquid between the glass one more time before closing it in his hand and holding it behind him so Klaus couldn’t see it and get any bright ideas.

“You know, I’m kinda impressed that you were able to stop halfway through.”

“It’s been a while since I’ve been sober for two weeks. You always hear about people overdosing after a stretch of sobriety, you know?”

“See? That’s huge that you could even worry about that.”

“Mm.” Klaus shrugged, not quite believing Ben but not arguing it either. Ben put a hand on Klaus’s back and gently pushed him out of his room, shutting the door behind him. When he turned back to start heading down the hallway towards the stairs, he ran right into Klaus’s chest as he launched his body at Ben and wrapped cold arms around him.

“Thanks, Benny.” He simply said before releasing his hold and making his way towards the stairs. Ben smiled and followed. He wasn’t going to push it by saying so, but even _that_ was a huge step in Klaus’s sobriety process. Yes, he relapsed today, but he hardly ever thanked Ben for his help- specifically with anything drug-related.

He was getting better… Right? Klaus would be fine.

But Ben knew even then that were more things than drugs that held Klaus back from reaching “fine”- Things that dug a deeper hole inside of Klaus than drugs ever could. Somewhere deep down, Ben knew there was still a long way to go and Klaus’s struggles weren’t even near over. After all, how does someone who is just barely staying sober after 17 years simultaneously even _start_ to fill a Dave-sized hole?

* * *

Every time Klaus’s foot connected with the Earth, his mind went blank for a fraction of a second… and that was fine. That was what he was going for, after all. The burn in his lungs, the sting of the chill on his arms, the buzz at the back of his skull, the strain in his muscles and the slight pain in his ankle, something that still hadn’t completely healed from one of their missions- it was all to distract him.

Running worked and it worked well- it was just when he stopped that everything flooded back in an instant.

His trembling cravings and intense need to shove every kind of numbing agent into his body. The new gravity of his powers that constantly coursed through him, scaring him often with the promise of a potential phenomenon that he never knew was possible of himself. The new anxiousness that he usually kept away with drugs. The stress of keeping up with his siblings and all of their harsh criticisms of himself and each other.

Most of all, the pain in his chest where a cavity grew with every passing day he spent without Dave. 

_God,_ he missed that guy. He missed him unlike he ever knew was possible.

 _Focus… or… don’t focus? I don’t know, just stop thinking about Dave, damn it!_ Klaus berated himself, trying to once again internalize each jolting step he took- each burning breath he breathed. This goal of his was impossible- to stop thinking about Dave. He was always thinking about Dave, he knew that. But still, Klaus constantly found every method he could to fight against the current of drugs, PTSD, and heartbreak, and so far, running was the best thing he’s come across.

Until he exhausts himself and the world goes fuzzy and he pushed it too far, that is. Klaus didn’t know it until his knee buckled under him and he nearly lost himself to the hard ground below. Luckily, he caught himself, his running high coming to a screeching halt. Klaus steadied himself on his feet and bent over, hands on his knees, exhausted. His breath heaved within his chest.

The figure that had been running alongside him stopped up ahead and came back around to join him: Diego.

“You okay?”

Klaus shook his head out, banishing the hair from his eyes. He nodded, still unable to speak clearly. His head buzzed and spun, but slowly, the world was coming back together.

He had to keep going.

“Yeah. Yeah.” Klaus dismissed through pants of air. He glanced up at Diego and then nodded towards the trail that stretched before them. “C’mon. Let’s keep going.”

“Bro-“

“I’m fine. Just a while more.”

Klaus went to straighten, intentions on bounding off back into a run before Diego could pester him further, but before he could even rise to his full height, he felt two fingers poke him in the ribs…

And damn, that small nudge was _more_ than enough to send Klaus’s world spinning again. It rushed up at him, his right-side colliding with a bed of grass. He groaned and rolled over onto his back, draping a tired arm over his eyes to peer at an unamused-Diego that shook his head from where he observed above him.

“Ow,” Klaus complained softly, squeezing his eyes shut against nausea. Diego had made his point though- if he hadn’t taken Klaus down with the gentlest of prodding, then Klaus would’ve most definitely passed out if he had kept his obsession going. Diego clearly knew this by the way he disapprovingly scowled at him.

“Stay there.” Diego sighed, trotting off and leaving Klaus alone for a moment before returning with a water bottle in front of Klaus’s face. Klaus gingerly took the canteen in his hand and took a sip before trying to hand it back. “No. Keep drinking.” Diego denied as he eased himself to the ground to lay next to Klaus, both of them looking up at the blue-gray skies.

Klaus sighed and did what he was told, trying to take it easy and stop the world from warping around him. He was aware of Diego’s eyes on him, but he didn’t want to explain himself. He didn’t want to make excuses about why he was so set on pushing himself to his limit or even tell the truth. Really, he wasn’t sure what the difference between “excuses” and “truth” was anymore.

“You know I’m thrilled that you want to get exercise instead of pushing shit into your system, but there’s more than one way to hurt yourself. You can’t just substitute one for the other.”

“I just am a little tired is all.”

“Because you barely eat, barely sleep, and you insist on running yourself dead.”

Klaus huffed and took another sip, feeling the cool water trickle down his throat. He didn’t say anything further so Diego spoke again to fill the silence.

“I’m just saying, take care of yourself. And you know, if- if you’d rather talk then exhaust yourself, dead… Just-“

“Thanks, pal.” Klaus saved Diego from having to stutter through more awkward offers of his metaphorical shoulder to lean on. Diego cleared his throat and nodded curtly and definitively up at the sky. The laid there silent for a moment- it was one of those feelings where you just knew it was the perfect moment to say something- to delve into something deep that you normally wouldn’t mention. The air was right. The timing was right.

So, yes. Klaus _could’ve_ opened up about Dave. He could’ve confided in his brother that he trusted with his life- he could’ve made an attempt to be that much less alone in this mess. He could’ve at least just put it out in the air.

But for whatever reason, Klaus didn’t.

And that was that.

It wasn’t all bad… Life, that is. Yeah, he always just hurt inside. Not just emotionally, but it constantly _physically_ hurt to miss Dave so much- to keep reliving that awful instance in his head over and over.

But some days, Klaus felt hopeful. Some days, Klaus felt like he was getting closer- like he was just on the cusp of seeing those ocean eyes again- touching his fingertips to Dave’s. He could sense it- he could see it.

One of those days came just after he nearly passed out on his run with Diego. Klaus had spent the morning near the graveyard with Ben and wowza, they were doing cool things.

* * *

Ben _tasted_. He _ate_. Klaus came up with the idea after they realized his powers were particularly strong that day- they were walking back from the outskirts of the graveyard (an area that Klaus didn’t particularly enjoy but could always bring out the best of his “ghostly force” in) and passed a popsicle stand on the street. Even before they knew Ben had the ability to be corporal, Klaus would sometimes do things in double. He’d buy an extra hotdog or an extra coffee or an extra beer as if Ben could actually interact. He’d either finish it himself eventually or just leave it somewhere. It seemed useless but Ben never questioned it- he appreciated it, even. It made him feel closer to being a person that he ever had.

And then he punched Klaus in the face. And then Klaus stayed sober. And then more and more each day, Ben _did_ become a “person” or his own version of it. But never in 17 years had he ever experience _taste_ before.

Klaus bought him a strawberry popsicle with a curious glint in his eye. Ben took the treat in his hands and raised it in front of his face, his heart (or the ghost-version of one) beating just a bit faster. Klaus raised an eyebrow like a mischievous kid just _daring_ him to go on- to just do it.

And Ben did. An explosion sweetness spread on his tongue, an unstoppable grin spread on his face. Number Six didn’t need to say anything for Klaus to know their little experiment was a success. They both beamed at each other like two idiotic kids on Christmas morning.

They returned to the house all giddy like two best friends with a secret they took pleasure in knowing when no one else knew. Ben got a few weird looks from Five and Diego when they entered the kitchen- exhausted from all they had accomplished today but clearly excited nonetheless. Otherwise, they didn’t question their sudden rise in spirits (no pun intended).

Klaus instantly moved to the fridge and freezer to pull out waffles, soda, whipped cream, pretzels, peanut butter- you name it. It didn’t take long for Numbers 2 and 5 to catch onto the excitement and soon _everyone_ had somehow made their way to the kitchen and were lining up all the food they could think of for Ben to try out.

Days like these reminded Six of the old days- the days where they’d band together in a rare moment of pure fun and innocence. They always felt like a real family at these times- as fucked up and dysfunctional as they always might be.

While everyone was insanely excited for Ben, and while Ben appreciated the excitement, he also was quietly thrilled for Klaus. It was Klaus’s newfound strength that allowed this new development to come to light, after all. Not only that, but today was one of the first days he saw Klaus truly smile in a _long,_ long time. Sure, there were moments where Ben would see his smile falter from across the kitchen table. No one else noticed the way his eyes turned down for a moment, his hand subconsciously raising to toy with the dog tags around his neck. Ben noticed though.

Still, with things seeming like they were slowly on the up and up, Ben was hopeful. He was hopeful that he could have a new version of a life in this world. That he could be more than Klaus’s “imaginary” friend that followed him around everywhere. He had hope that his family would be okay- that they might even venture to be a family at all. And most of all, Ben had hope that Klaus would finally start allowing himself to realize his worth. Not only with his powers but his place in this family and even everything outside of it. He had hope that not only would Klaus stop constantly hurting/near-killing himself, but also that the world would allow him something truly good and there and _his_.

He hoped for Dave. He knew Klaus did too.

Suddenly, breaking Ben from his internal thoughts and hopes and dreams was Klaus’s sneeze from across the room…

And a burst of energy that completely ravaged the cabinets, tossing food, dishes, and knickknacks all around and bringing any loose items in the room crashing to the floor. They all froze, eyes wide and scanning the room for the source of such sudden destruction.

And then there was Klaus who slowly raised his head from where he sneezed into the crook of his arm, his eyes finally taking in the sight of the trashed room around him. By then, everyone had figured it out and were watching him- Well- Everyone had figured it out save for Klaus himself.

“Woah. What did you guys do?” He asked, frowning at the suddenly overturned kitchen. Ben and Diego exchanged glances and Allison covered her mouth in amused surprise. Vanya slowly picked up the salt shaker from the ground and replaced it on the counter as if that helped the new disaster around them.

“Klaus…” Luther shook his head in disbelief, a small, stunned chuckle escaping his lips. “I think that was you.”

Klaus frowned deeper and looked around, his expression mostly unreadable. No one really knew how to react or how Klaus would react until he suddenly chirped a small giggle.

“Ha! Wowie. Crazy, right?”

And then he swiped a cookie off the counter, took a big bite, and headed up to his room casually leaving his sibling to all gawk at the unexpected display of untamed, untapped power.

One thing was for sure- things _were_ changing. Ben just hoped it would all be for the best.

* * *

_Burning cities and_

_Napalm skies_

_Fifteen flares inside those ocean eyes_


	2. California

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Klaus's PTSD hits at the most unexpected times. The Academy is stuck cleaning up and protecting the new timeline they've created. A shocking realization hits Klaus when a secret that his siblings have been keeping from him comes to light.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if the time-travel stuff gets confusing. Not super important to the story but just my own musings about what I think would happen if the siblings went back in time and changed a bunch of shit.

Greens, browns, and blues swirled in a blown-out meld of awful memories and sensations. He should've seen it coming with their most recent mission bringing all seven siblings to a wooded area. It was all different though- deciduous forests of dark pines rather than all-encompassing, yellowed palms.

However, it seems that it didn't matter _what_ kind of trees they were- it just mattered that they surrounded Klaus completely, reminding him all too well of the jungles in Vietnam- particularly the lush overgrowth of A Shau Valley.

Thank God, the PTSD was at least polite enough to wait until they succeeded in their plans. To backtrack a bit:

Ever since the siblings returned to their childhood and changed some things around in order to save the world from inevitable destruction, things had been… wonky. The alterations that they made created somewhat of a "butterfly effect" in their new present time. It could be something as small as a TV show that originally stretched on for fifteen seasons was now canceled upon the pilot. Klaus didn't know how changing their family dynamic in the past could possibly effect _Criminal Minds_ , but that was the nature of time travel- one tiny alteration could create a domino fall of all kinds of shit.

On the other end of the scale, there were also some _big_ changes like North Dakota seceding from the United States. That was a whole thing that Klaus didn't even want to _begin_ to understand. He never paid much attention to North Dakota anyway, so for him, no big loss. You better believe that Five was _freaking_ though.

"Don't you see what this means? Our attempts were successful, yes, but our work is _far_ from over. Now that we fucked everything up, the commission will be on our asses trying everything they can to re-reverse our reversal. It's us against them now and those odds are not looking promising."

"So why did we do it in the first place?" Luther questioned, his face scrunched in the usual confusion he showed when Five spoke. It wasn't just him though- everyone was trying to celebrate when they first returned from the past, the world put back together. So why was Five cutting their well-deserved excitement short?

"To buy us time." Five threw up his hands as if his inner plans that he never shared with anyone were blatantly obvious.

"Aaaaaaaand… What now?" Allison prodded, clearly annoyed that this wasn't all over. Klaus didn't blame her. Saving the universe was hard work. Now they had to _keep_ saving it until they figured out how to permanently fend off the commission from undoing what they undid all over again?

"Now, we have to put out fires… and maybe stoke the flames of others."

"Five, for God's sake."

"Five!"

"English, for _once_."

"No time for metaphors!"

Everyone complained at once, Klaus even throwing his empty coffee cup at his brother's head. Five swatted it out of the way and rolled his eyes.

"There are certain events that we changed in the past in order to ensure this new future. The commission's job is _literally_ to undo those- usually, it's to keep order, but in this case, they'll be trying to change them _back_ to ensure chaos and destruction all over again. We have to get to these anomalies before they do. Fend them off. Keep them how we changed them."

"So, we're not done time traveling is what you're saying?" Diego groaned.

"Unfortunately, no. For example, they're going to try to go back to the moment that North Dakota seceded in '98. I don't know why, but for some reason, that has a hand in how the apocalypse never happened. We need to get there before they do and stop them from preventing it."

"And what about 'putting out' fires?"

"Well, I don't know what kind of dangers we brought about to the present day in our new timeline. We could have new enemies we never even knew about. Maybe… fascist Canada is a thing now, I don't know. It's anyone's guess." Five rambled on, already rifling through their Dad's collection of old newspapers, trying to find clues about the differences of their new 2019.

"Can I just- What you're saying is we can't leave anytime soon, right? We're all stuck here until the commission isn't a threat." Allison spoke up again, her voice strained. Klaus watched her with sad eyes, realizing she was heartbroken over the thought of spending more time away from Claire.

Klaus felt bad.

"Sorry." Five stopped his fiddling for a moment to give what seemed like a pretty genuine look of sympathy. They all stared at each other.

Klaus was personally fine with the idea of living here a while longer with his siblings- it was just the work they were going to have to do that seemed extremely daunting and honestly a drag.

"How are we supposed to know where these 'anomalies' that we are protecting even are?" Vanya brought up a solid point. "I mean- you're really going to search through _newspapers_ to find things that _might_ be a little different than they were before and then we travel there _hoping_ to catch the commission in action at the very same time?"

"Just- Agh." Five was clearly getting frustrated with the amount of explaining he had to walk his siblings through. "We have to break into the commission without them knowing and take some anomaly trackers and a radio device to tap into their command center. That way we can find the anomalies ourselves and also be tipped off about when exactly they send agents to go correct it. Then we intervene."

"And this is what- all while they are probably after us?" Ben finally added his piece as well.

"Oh, yeah. They're probably sending people to the house as we speak."

And that was the moment that they all leaped into action to fortify the house and turn it into somewhat of their own personal fortress. It didn't help the fact that they were clearly being watched at every turn though- for weeks afterward, there would be black vans, shady figures, and nosy eyes all around them. With their Dad's re-activated security measures of intense paranoia and their constant alertness though, no one tried to actually enter their home and cause and havoc.

Not yet, at least.

So, fast forward to now- the swirly trees and the panicked thumping in Klaus's heart. It was still about two weeks after they first returned. They were in 1989 protecting some farm in California from a siege.

Who knew why. Klaus stopped asking. Five was sure that they had to protect this moment in order to protect their new future, so… You know, whatever. Good enough for Klaus.

Everyone had their part in missions nowadays which was kind of cool to see if he was being honest. When they were kids, there was always Luther, Diego, Allison, and Five that did the heavy work… Ben brought in for emergencies. Vanya was obviously nonexistent in these instances and Klaus may as well have been too- there wasn't much he could do with the power of ghost harassment… pluuuuus, he tended to get a bit distracted.

Now though, they all were kept busy. Ben was still on tap in case things went to shit. Luther was becoming a better strategizer- a better leader. Allison finally gave in to using her Rumor stuff again (just for missions, she specified constantly). Diego and Five were pretty obvious. Vanya's powers were still a little touchy sometimes but mostly, she was getting better at controlling them and _damn_ were they helpful.

And then there was Klaus who could actually do shit to help now. For instance, during this particular mission, they "touched down" further from their mark than intended- in the middle of the woods without seemingly no direction towards said Californian Farm.

Isn't it just so fortunate for everyone else that Klaus is constantly haunted by nearby long-dead, lingering residents to show them the way?

The ghosts didn't say anything intelligible. They just stared at the intruders and half-walked, half-glided through the forestry towards what Klaus assumed was their used-to-be-home… and conveniently, the destination that he and his siblings sought. Missions didn't always present opportunities for Klaus like this- sometimes there just wasn't any need to talk or follow the dead. Sometimes there were no dead at all. In these cases, Klaus just tagged along and kept up his strength in case everyone needed Ben- Six's powers were still all funneled through Klaus, after all.

Klaus would prefer to skip the boring parts- They arrived at the farm, they caught the commission agents trying to assassinate some dude who apparently held some importance, defeated the assassins, and then grabbed hands in a circle while Five transported them back 1-second, then 2-seconds, then 3, 4, 5, 6, 7… All until he got tired and couldn't jump them back through time any longer.

This was to,

"… _create multiple timelines to throw the commission off our scent. If we tangle the timelines around the anomaly, it'll make it near impossible to sort through."_

It made zero sense to any of them (save for Five), but if he said it's what they needed to do and was willing to exhaust himself for it, Klaus would believe his brother. It was a pain in the ass to have to do that "time-line tangling" after every anomaly encounter though. As Klaus knew all too well, time travel had a crappy effect on your body physically.

Maybe that's why now as he walked through the woods towards the nearest road with his siblings all chattering in a line, Klaus's defenses felt like they were crumbling. His mind was hazy and his heart was still beating erratically from the multiple time travel jumps:

A perfect storm for his PTSD to take root and start melding his Vietnam past into his reality.

The wind in the trees picked up until Klaus _swore_ it was the breezy revolutions of helicopter blades overhead. The shadows were playing tricks on his eyes, the ground beneath him became softer, the smell of napalm materialized and his siblings weren't his siblings anymore- he was trekking through the jungle with a squad- _his_ squad. There was the back of Teddy's head… Don… Sarge…

Dave.

"Woah, woah. What the fuck." Diego's voice split into Klaus's closing-in pseudo-sensations. It jolted his wildly cruel overactive mind back into the actual woods if only for a second- then things started to meld together again in a terrible reminder of those biting details Klaus would never forget from the valley.

He stumbled backward away from where his siblings were all stopping and turning to look. Klaus wasn't paying attention to that though. There were planes. Up ahead. Clear and crisp.

This had to be real. They were getting so loud. They _had_ to be real.

His back hit the trunk of a tree and his lungs heaved violently within his chest. His fingertips felt prickly and his face got hot before going ice cold. He could _feel_ the blood drain from his skin.

"You okay?" Allison who was second-closest to Klaus, reaching a hand out in an attempt to calm him. He felt the touch of her gentle fingertips on his arm but instinctively jumped away, stumbling around the tree and just _needing_ distance from these people- from everything.

He had to… he had to run. Somewhere else. He had to get Dave. Where was Dave?

Holy fuck, Dave was dead.

_What if I'm dead? What if this is all just some fucked up purgatory while I'm waiting for my one-way ticket down to Hell?_ Was just one of the many thoughts Klaus's mind birthed as Vietnam continued to flourish around him. _I wish it were me. I hope that it's me. I know that it's not though. This is all in my head. This is all… This is all…_

"Just… keep going. We'll catch up." Klaus heard Ben's voice murmur in a low tone to everyone else as Klaus inched further and further away. It was becoming a little easier to breathe the more that the others' voices faded. The less he saw of them, the more things came back into focus until Klaus finally turned around a tree and slid down to the ground, pulling his knees up to his chest.

"Breathe, fucking idiot," Klaus whispered, dropping his forehead to his knees and running his hands desperately up and down his shins. "Don't be a baby. You're fine." He mumbled to himself- the sound of his own voice speaking reason helped a little… but only a little. It wasn't until there was another figure crouched down in front of him that Klaus started to allow his mind to focus on one thing at a time.

"Hey. I'm here. You're alright, dude. It's Ben."

Ah, yes. Benji knew the drill. This had happened a few times already to Klaus's irritation. Maybe it was because he thought himself above wartime PTSD, being an out-of-place time traveler and all. It didn't even really count… right?

That was a foolish thing to assume though, Klaus soon realized. It didn't matter if you were from that time or not- he still saw so much… _too_ much. He lost. He feared. He hurt. He _died_. At least _he_ came back though. Dave was gone. He was taken from him in that war, so you know what? Damn right Klaus had some trauma issues. Who fucking wouldn't?

"Can you hear me?" Ben continued to try his best, coaxing Klaus back into reality. It was then that Klaus could finally hear how loud his panicked breaths were. He could feel how dramatically his chest heaved. He could feel the sweat on his palms and the goosebumps on his flesh.

Most of all though, he could feel the cool touch of Ben's hand to his arm and whether it be just Ben in general or the strangely unique ghost-to-séance bond that they seemed to share, it brought Klaus back a great deal faster than he ever would've been able to do on his own.

This Ben. He seriously was an angel. Klaus didn't deserve him. He knew that- In fact, every day of his life, he knew that.

"'M okay." Klaus patted Ben's hand as his breathing subsided and the world became less foggy and confused. He looked around and tried to remember the forest when he came in. The pines took form, the palms fading. The shouts and blades that he _swore_ he heard were just distant echoes now.

Amazing what the mind could do. Amazing, and terrifying.

"What can I do?" Ben asked, retracting his hand and allowing himself to ease down crisscrossed on the ground in front of Klaus.

"Just need a second."

"Okay. Take your time."

And he did. Ben and Klaus just sat there for a while as Number Four regained his grip on reality. Soon, the calming sound of birds in singsong and the gentle breeze through the leaves turned into soothing background rather than triggers. Klaus took notice of how perfect the temperature was- maybe just a bit chilly whenever the wind blew through. He took comfort in just feeling Ben's presence there, even if they didn't say anything. They didn't need to. This was enough.

Finally, Klaus surprised himself when his thoughts escaped his lips before he even realized.

"I'll never see him again."

Ben raised an eyebrow and turned to look at Klaus curiously.

"…Dave?"

Klaus swallowed thickly, feeling heat rise to the brim of his eyes. He nodded, turned away.

"Oh, come on. Yeah you will."

"It's been weeks. I've been sober. I've been trying everything. What else is there to do? He's just… He's not here."

"You catastrophize everything, you know that?" Ben smirked and shook his head. Klaus had half-a-mind to kick Ben for being so light hearted about something he himself as clearly broken over, but Ben's lightness about the whole thing gave him a weird spark of hope. Maybe it was because Ben sounded so confident, and further, "You have _not_ tried _everything_."

"So, what then? What else can I do? I'm exercising my powers every day. I'm taking hours to meditate through to dead world, trying to call out for him. I- How did _you_ find me? It only took you, like, three days to materialize and scare the living shit out of me."

Ben sighed and half-shrugged.

"I knew exactly where to find you. I just kind of… was at the Academy suddenly. I don't know how it works, but there's no place I'd end up otherwise. How would Dave know where the Academy is or where you are?"

Klaus thought about that.

"So…"

"So, I've been thinking… Where is the first place Dave would return if he could return anywhere?"

Klaus felt his interest sparked. This could be something- this could be a lead.

"Uh… He lived in Missouri?"

And then it clicked.

"He had a sister. Lizzie."

"She still around?"

"I dunno."

"I think it's worth a road trip, don't you?"

Klaus felt excitement bubble up in him, but he tried not to let his hopes get too high… Although, that was a practice that Klaus never got very good at. Once his thoughts were locked on an idea, he had a hard time letting it go, especially if it had to do with Dave.

Could this be the answer? Dave has just been waiting for him Missouri? Klaus _did_ consider going to his grave to try that, but he hadn't the slightest clue on where it was or how to find it. If Lizzie was still alive, she'd know for sure.

"Can we go today?"

"Woah, let's focus on getting home first. You can barely make it down this trail let alone on a cross-country road trip. C'mon."

Ben gave Klaus a hand up and they rejoined their siblings who instead of walking up ahead, had waited them out. They questioned Klaus when he came back, but Four made it pretty clear that he didn't want to talk about it.

Where would he even begin?

Instead, Numbers 1, 2, 3, 5, and 7 just exchanged perplexed glances and carried on, often sneaking curious peeks at Klaus for the rest of the walk when they thought he wasn't looking. They didn't mean to ostracize Klaus further- this he knew- but he always felt like a living, breathing spectacle of disaster when it came to his siblings sometimes. He felt like he was the train-wreck that no one wanted to truly get dangerously close to, but they like to curiously watch and judge from afar.

To be fair, he didn't let them close either. He had other things to worry about. Well, one other thing, and that was Dave. Once Dave was back, _then_ he could worry about whether or not he wanted to make the effort to mend any broken ties with his family… if that's even what everyone else wanted. It was still unclear what everyone wanted out of this "Umbrella Academy" reunion thing.

However, just later that day, Klaus was convinced that he _never ever ever ever ever_ wanted to see his siblings _ever_ again…

And it all had to do with one slip up on Vanya's part once they returned home.

They all tiredly trickled into the living room, a few gravitating towards Dad's stock of alcohol but only lingering- Klaus blatantly noticed how obviously they tried to refrain from opening any bottles of said-devil's-liquid with him around. He appreciated it… he thinks? It also kind of made him feel like a child that couldn't catch Mommy and Daddy drinking which was slightly irritating.

A lot of little things irritated him these days.

"Allie, you want to go to the ring for a bit?" Diego asked as he was unsheathing his various knives from his torso and casually laying them out on the bar. Klaus wrestled with his jacket, mostly not listening to his siblings and instead focusing on hanging up his garments in the closet before retreating to his room to sleep.

"After that? How are you not exhausted?"

"Best time to practice. Can't ever have your guard down."

"You're insane. Fine." Allison resigned. At this point, Klaus was halfway in the foyer closet, kicking off his shoes and hanging his jacket. The funny thing was, what was said next wouldn't have even reached him if he hadn't accidentally dropped his jacket and had to hang it up all over again.

"Diego…" Vanya cut in.

"What?"

"Practice?"

"Oh, right. We'll drop you off on the way." Diego recalled and Vanya thanked.

"Sorry. I've been looking into cars since the inheritances came in. Think I found one I'm checking out tomorrow."

At first, the words phased right through Klaus. He heard them but wasn't quite listening as he took his first step up towards the second floor, his siblings' echoes emanating from the living room.

But then, his mind _did_ process it. He froze, his hand gripping the banister.

"What?" His voice, full of accusatory venom split through the air and ceased all other chatter. The house echoed with the remnants of everyone's seemingly innocent conversation- innocent until Vanya made that fateful remark.

Klaus spun slowly on his heel and made his way into the living room where six pairs of eyes watched him cautiously, no one moving a muscle- _Guilty_. They looked guilty as _hell_ , only confirming Klaus's suspicions.

"Did you say inheritance? Since when did we get an inheritance? Why wasn't I told about this?" He dove right in, his fingertips getting hot and prickly with building anger that he didn't want but was rising anyway.

It didn't help that no one answered. They all just exchanged glances right in front of him as if he couldn't see their nonverbal ways of secret communication to one another.

"So… What? You've all already gotten yours?" Klaus didn't let up. It was then that Luther stepped up to the plate, but honestly, that was probably the last person who could calm Klaus down right now.

"Listen… Klaus…"

Already condescending.

"You're just in a… a fragile state right now, okay?"

Klaus let out a harsh snort of laughter.

"And that's for _you_ to decide?"

If Klaus wanted to waste all that Dad left him on drugs and needles, then that was _his_ business… And, to be clear, he didna want to do that anyway.

"Well… It's Dad's… And ours. Straight in the will. You can have it all when we can be sure you won't go blow it on substance." Diego stepped in, gently pushing Luther to the side. Klaus took a quick survey of the room as Diego's meaningless words floated straight through him- Vanya looked extremely regretful for letting the secret slip. Allison sat at the bar, her hand covering her eyes and pinching the bridge of her nose in disappointment. Five sat with his arms crossed and his face slack and unamused as if to say,

_Duh, you're KLAUS. What do you expect?_

Thank God Ben looked genuinely out of the loop or Klaus would've gone fucking nuts.

"Master Klaus-"

"Oh, no. Let me guess, Pogo-" Klaus cut in as Pogo entered the room from seemingly nowhere with his hunched stride and reasoning accent. Klaus pulled his best impression, " _It's true, Master Klaus. Your father- Your siblings- Your Mother- what's best for you-_ Blah, blah, blah." Klaus shot back at the disapproving monkey. He whipped back around to his siblings who watched him with furrowed brows and judgmental eyes. "I'm sober!"

"Yeah, but not… Steadily. We're just looking out for you! We'll buy you whatever you need in the mean-"

"Now I'm a child who needs to ask permission to go buy myself a- a- fucking taco?" Klaus shot back at Diego who was still trying to extinguish the flames. It wasn't just his biting words that metaphorically shook the room though- the floor beneath his feet rumbled. The whole house did. At first, it didn't even cross Klaus's mind that this could've been due to him. It wasn't until Vanya jumped up and held a hand out defensively.

"Klaus!"

"Watch it!" Luther warned, stepping around Diego in offensive position.

"What? You gonna lock me up like Vanya?"

"Klaus-" Ben tried to cut in, but Klaus was already halfway out of the room at that point, the trembling beneath them fading along with him.

He had white-hot prickling rage in every step he took, but truthfully, maybe it wasn't all about the fact that his siblings were holding back his inheritance from him. Sure, that pissed him off but Klaus had a sneaking suspicion that maybe this was just the explosion of emotion that he had been inevitably building towards the last couple of weeks.

Being sober. Relapsing. PTSD. Dave. Constant missions. Constant sibling interaction.

It was a lot to deal with when all you were used to was getting high as hell every night and spending your time in La-La Land.

Klaus didn't fully acknowledge that all of this unearthed rage wasn't completely directed at his siblings though. It felt better to have someone to blame. And since he had someone to blame, he didn't feel the least bit guilty when he dipped into Diego's room, stole his wallet, snuck into Luther's room, stole the keys to Dad's car, and finally snuck out the window down the fire escape.

Ben didn't appear until Klaus was in the driver's seat, revving the engine. His voice came out of nowhere from the passenger seat, calm and cautious.

"Klaus. You don't know how to drive, bud."

"Diego taught me."

"D took you out _once_."

"Once and a half." Klaus corrected, his hands slightly shaking as he put the car into "drive" nonetheless. Ben sat back and watched him, no more protests on his lips. It wasn't until Klaus (very slowly) made it to the first intersection outside of their house that Ben asked the real questions.

"Where are we going?"

Klaus nervously tapped the steering wheel. A small part of him was wondering if this wasn't such a bright idea. He had barely spent any time behind a wheel and after what happened when he was teenager, the idea of driving still spooked him.

"Missouri." Klaus admitted. Just saying it made him that more excited though- that surer that this is what he wanted to do.

"You know how to get there?"

"You're my navigator, pal." Klaus gestured towards the glove box in front of Ben who smirked and shook his head. He did it though- he reached forward and pulled out a comically humongous map, his eyes scanning through the tangles of streets and highways to try and find a way to their destination.

"Left onto the highway up there." Ben pointed. The light turned green, and Klaus did so, all the while feeling Ben's excitement grow beside him.

That was always something Klaus loved about Ben. Even though he often acting as Klaus's conscience, pushing him away from terrible mistakes and half-baked decisions, he had his own adventurous side. Plus, he and Ben rarely traveled. Klaus was always too high. Ben loved it when he got to see new places so it made sense that he was quickly on board with Klaus's sudden escape plan.

"Road trip," Ben even smiled as they (extremely cautiously but sloppily) merged onto the highway. Klaus shot him a small smile. He should take Ben out more.

Slowly that smile faded though, partly for concentration purposed and partly because Klaus's mind was taken over by more pessimistic thoughts- Thoughts of,

_What if I just find that Dave is gone… Like…_ Really _gone?_

_If this is a bust, I don't know what else to do._

_Is visiting Missouri just going to make it all hurt more?_

"Hey," Ben cut in, clearly recognizing the look on Klaus's face. ", don't worry. This is a good thing."

Klaus took a deep breath and nodded.

Then he drove… he just drove.

* * *

_Scared to win_

_Scared to lose_

_I heard the War is over_

_If you really choose_

_The one in and around you_

_You hate the heat_

_You got the blues_

_Changing like the weather_

_Oh, that's so like you_

_The same wind that moves you_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow.wow.wow.wow.wow. You guys are SERIOUSLY the best. I really didn't think people would be this excited for the sequel but you all found it instantly and poured so much support in from the getgo- thank you from the bottom of my heart! 
> 
> NEXT UP: Klaus and Ben track down Lizzie and are introduced Dave's life as it was outside of the war. Whether it be at his old house, his grave, or by Lizzie's side, Klaus is hoping that he will finally find his long-dead boyfriend.


	3. Take Me Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Klaus and Ben visit Dave's hometown in search of his sister Lizzie and his grave, hoping to find Dave's spirit lurking about. Klaus also reflects on the first time he returned home after time traveling back to the present.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *******3-27 EDIT: To anyone who may be coming back to this story hoping that it's updated, SO SORRY. I'll explain my absence when I finally post the next chapter and get back on track. So, it's coming very soon! Thanks for the patience!

Klaus would always remember the feeling of walking through the Academy doors for the first time following the events in Vietnam. To be fair, he had gone nearly a decade without stepping inside these walls before so it wasn’t like it was the length of time that made things feel weird- it was just the fact that he had basically been rebirthed from a whole other _world_. Being in a different time just as well might have felt the same as being on a different planet.

The worst part for Klaus was that the longer he was in the Academy- the more sensations and familiar memories that flooded back into his mind- the more it was beginning to seem like Vietnam was just a passing dream- a fleeting nightmare. The more time he spent in the present, the more distant he felt from the past. Everyone kept living like nothing happened; like Klaus traveling never happened; like Dave never happened.

It made him feel sick which wasn’t appreciated when he already felt like someone had tossed him in a dryer machine set on high. Everything was sore. He was still caked with blood. His joints were stiff and his eyes stung. Not to mention, he was disgustingly 100% sober, so… he hadn’t even realized at first. Klaus guessed the soul-crushing heartache and adrenaline covered up his withdrawal symptoms.

No matter. He’d fix this sobriety thing real quick.

After popping a few pills, Klaus slunk into the bathroom, noting that he hadn’t run into any siblings yet and not caring either. He knew it was the same day he teleported away from the newspaper on the street. He doubted anyone was looking for him anyway. They hadn’t noticed when Hazel and Cha-Cha took him on a joyride, did they?

The hot water and familiar curvature of the bathtub around him had never felt so good. It was like every one of his muscles unwound from their cruel twists and tightening as soon as it sunk underneath the surface. Klaus shivered and closed his eyes, imagining all the images of death and loss spread into the water and pop like bubbles.

He couldn’t pretend to completely be free of it though. There was still a deep, stabbing pit in his stomach.

Then, guess what? Like a beautifully evil cherry on top, that’s when the PTSD immediately started as well.

Not that Klaus was really in the mood to see _anyone_ right now, but if he was, that person wouldn’t have been Five. Honestly, he was probably the last of his siblings he wanted to see right now. All Klaus really wanted to do was curl up and sleep off all the hours he lost just staring forward in self-pity.

He didn’t really even remember what Five was in there talking to him about. He just remembers that he instantly knew Klaus had traveled. Even then, it didn’t matter. It was just a fun little tidbit of information for Five- something small barely affecting his “bigger-than-Klaus’s-dumbass-problems” life.

Once he got rid of Five, Klaus took one more pill for good measure, then very achingly climbed under his covers and buried himself from the world. With one last fading image of Dave’s bright eyes engrained into his mind, he almost instantly fell into sleep…

…And just as quickly was reawakened.

It started with far off _clicks_ that became far off _booms_ that became extremely close and ear-shatteringly loud _BAMS_ and suddenly Klaus found himself balled up in the corner of his room on the floor with his breaths heaving in his chest and his whole body shaking. He had no clue where he was, where he squad was, where Dave was… Once he figured out that he wasn’t in Vietnam anymore, all he could wish was that he was there; that his squad was still a living group of goofy but incredibly brave guys; that Dave was waiting for him on their cots with a record lazily spinning on Monty the record player.

Even the recognition of his room didn’t fully tear Klaus out of his overwhelming panic though- he had never been so out of control of his breathing before. He was getting plenty of air, but it felt like he was suffocating. His face was prickly hot and his fingertips were ice cold as they clawed at the skin of his arm.

“Klaus! _Klaus!_ Jesus fucking… What are you on? Huh? Talk to me!” Ben came out of nowhere… Like, literally… he materialized out of thin air. He couldn’t touch Klaus at this point, it was before they even knew that was possible, but he did hold his ever-so-slightly translucent face right in front of Klaus, snapping with his fingers in the air.

“No,” Was all Klaus could whisper at that moment. What he really wanted to say was, _No, jerk. I’m not on drugs. My body just can’t seem to grasp the fact that I’m not currently fighting a war. My boyfriend’s dead. My friends are dead. I did nothing to help. I don’t want to be back. I wish I would’ve died. Nothing is okay._

But all Klaus said was, “No.”

Again, and again.

“No, no, no,”

Ben coached him through, still not knowing what was happening but treating it as if Klaus was on a bad acid trip- such situation had happened many times before. When Klaus was able to actually speak and still his rocking body again, Ben sat back with arms crossed, suspicious.

“This why I couldn’t reach you? You escaped Hazel and Cha-Cha’s and instantly went to get high out of your mind? It’s been a day, dude.”

Klaus sighed and rested his chin on his knee, hugging his right leg to his chest.

“Been a lot longer than a day.” He raised an eyebrow and muttered tiredly through clenched teeth. He was happy to see Ben, of course, but still, all he could feel was that pain in his chest- that sinking of his heart- that Dave-sized hole.

Ben waited, knowing better than to make assumptions about the wide array of crap that Klaus could get himself into and just waiting for an explanation. When Four looked up into Six’s eyes, he could tell that Ben was going to haunt his ass off until he got some kind of answer to what had happened… and Klaus couldn’t lie to Ben. It’s not that he didn’t _want_ to- trust him, it’d make life a lot easier. Ben just caught on too quickly after living with Klaus for so long.

And so, Klaus took a shaky breath and opened his mouth to somehow begin his story of the last 10 months. Instead, his insides collapsed and he heaved in a shaky breath, collapsing to his side. No matter how hard he tried to stop it, the sobs came back full force and blurred the world around him, Ben included.

Klaus tried to forget that day the best he could but it was hard when so many other crazy things happened right after that with his family. At least it was a distraction, he guessed.

And truthfully, he couldn’t say it was _all_ bad. He appreciated that Ben sat next to him quietly through all the tears and panicked gasps, his bluey-translucent ghost hand just kinda hovering on top of Klaus’s. He only felt the frigid chill of Ben’s spirit at that point, but it was enough to slowly pull him out of his breakdown to finally truly tell Ben everything.

Didn't people always say that ‘getting shit off your chest’ helps or something? Because all Klaus remembered was how saying it out loud somehow made it hurt exponentially more- it made it more real, now that someone else knew. Luckily, once again, Ben was a champ.

Now, a couple weeks later, after accidentally driving the wrong way for two hours and having to compensate, Klaus and Ben were about halfway to Missouri. Their conversation about music had gone quiet and was replaced by the hum of the car tires over the country road…

On another note, Klaus survived the highway for about five minutes before they agreed to never try using one again. Back roads only from now on. It was a beautiful drive if Klaus ever had the courage to look around a bit. His favorite part was opening the windows and screaming John Denver’s, _Take Me Home Country Roads_ in perfect context as they dipped and rose over hills like the back of a wavy sea monster- that was definitely _not_ Ben’s favorite part though, as he threatened to reach into Klaus’s insides with his ghost-hand to tear out his spleen if he didn’t stop shrieking about “West Virginia” and “Mountain Mama’s”.

Later in the trip, Klaus glanced over at Ben to ask if he wanted to stop for a cheeseburger (especially now that he could actually taste one), but to his sudden shock, Ben wasn’t next to him.

* * *

**"There you go. You can go a little faster, Klaus."**

**"Nah."**

**"Okay. You know, I never thought I'd drive a Toyota Hilux. Japan just cranked out the first-ever model last year. 1.5 L inline-four engine-"**

**"Dave. You know I think your car talk is super sexy but I'm freaking out here."**

**"Sorry. Sorry. Okay, don't go all off the wall, but there's a car coming the other way."**

**" _What._ "**

**"Klaus, you're fine. Just pass and-"**

**" _Dave._ "**

**"Babe. Just-"**

**"Why is he coming at me so fast?"**

**"You're just going slow."**

**"I'm done. That's good." Klaus veered off the street and onto the dirt shoulder, screeching them to an abrupt stop. Dave held out his hand on the dashboard to steady himself from the lurch.**

**"Christ. Okay, put it in park."**

**"That was fun."**

**"Oh, _now_ it was fun?" Dave laughed, playfully shoving Klaus's head to the side before they switched back.**

* * *

“Fuck!”

Klaus yanked the wheel back to center the car on the road at the piercing sound of Ben’s sudden exclamation. They swerved a bit until Klaus could correct their course, his heart beating loudly between his ears.

“Sorry! Sorry…”

“You need a break?” Ben asked, taking a deep breath and cautiously relaxing back into his seat. Klaus’s hands gripped the steering wheel so tightly that it was painful.

“Yeah, actually. Why don’t you drive for a bit?”

“Klaus…”

“What?”

“I’m a fucking _ghost_ , bro.”

“So?”

And that’s how Ben ended up driving the rest of the way there- his exhilarated adrenaline and cheesy smile as he drove his first car was enough to affirm to Klaus that this was a good decision, even if they were both secretly terrified of Ben suddenly losing his ability to touch. Still, they seemed to be in pretty good shape these past few days as far as Klaus’s powers went, so the risk was worth the rewards.

* * *

They arrived in Parkville at 8 P.M. on a Monday. That’s all Klaus knew though- that Dave was from Parkville. They didn’t know if Lizzie was still there, where his old house was, or if Dave himself was even there- buried there, that is. As they pulled into town (well, _Ben_ technically pulled into town after Klaus had nagged him into driving), Klaus’s eyes were running over every detail of every little thing they passed like his life depended on it.

It kind of broke Ben’s heart. He imagined it was strange to cruise through a place that basically birthed the person you loved- a whole world and side to Dave that Klaus never knew but was still a side to him all the same.

“It feels funny.” Was all Klaus said about the matter, ever the poet.

After rushing into the library half-an-hour before closing time, they flew through phone books and town records, trying to find an Elizabeth Katz until…

“Fuck. Her last name wasn't Katz.” Klaus suddenly dropped his head into his arms.

“What… did she get married?”

“No! I- Well, maybe there’s that too, but she was never Katz. She was Dave’s half-sister. Different Dads.”

“Well, fuck.” Ben slammed a book closed and got an angry eye from the librarian who was tidying up nearby shelves as the day came to a close.

“Yeah. Fuck. I don’t remember it. I _know_ he’s said it before… I should’ve listened better. Just in case, you know? Like-“

“Klaus, hey. Your pity-rambling isn’t going to help us.” Ben tried to reason, Klaus looking uber offended by his comment but quickly forgetting when Ben carried on. “Why don’t we look Dave’s old house and go from there, yeah? Even if it has new owners, maybe they’d know something.”

And so, after rifling through a few different Katz’s, they pinned down an address for Caroline and Jared Katz in 1942… Dave would’ve been four years old and his biological Dad was still around, but Klaus knew he grew up in the same house his whole life- his Mom could never part with the place.

Not really wanting to disturb anyone past 9:30 PM (by Ben’s advice), they slept in the car outside a Walmart. “Slept” was a strong way to put it- First of all, Ben didn’t sleep. Second of all, it was _not_ comfortable. Especially not with Klaus 100000 times fidget-ier than usual.

“I’m telling you-“

“I _know_ , I know… But what if whoever lives there works tomorrow morning? I mean, shouldn’t we just go and at least find out if-“

“We’re going to get the door slammed in our face… Possibly the police called on us.”

“Ugh.” Klaus scoffed, turning on his side away from Ben in the dark car, his fingers impatiently tapping the seat leather. Ben didn’t blame his brother, truly. He really didn’t know how it felt to be in Klaus’s situation, but he imagined that it couldn’t be easy to be so close to something so purely Dave and have to wait- to be near potential answers kept just barely out of reach.

After a long night and a quick breakfast courtesy of Mickey-D’s (and Diego’s wallet), they only got lost twice on the way to Dave’s childhood home. It didn’t help that Klaus was constantly up Ben’s ass about every little thing as if he was any better at directions or driving. _Finally_ , they found themselves standing outside a small one-story house with peeling paint that Ben would call… chartreuse maybe? The steps were a dark brick, the edges crumbling. The windows were covered by yellowing drapes inside and everything seemed otherwise dark.

“Ready?” Ben nudged the silent-for-the-first-time-today menace beside him. Klaus closed his slightly ajar mouth and nodded.

* * *

“Um… Are- Is there a Lizzie that lives here?”

The thin, skeptical woman, about mid-50s if Klaus had to guess, blinked at him, unamused. She crossed her arms over her chest and cocked an eyebrow, giving Klaus a look up and down. Suddenly he felt strangely self-conscious and bothersome.

“Who are you?” The woman blatantly asked.

Okay. Getting right down to it. Klaus could appreciate that. Only thing was, he didn’t exactly think to come up with a story other than “Hey, I’m looking for my dead boyfriend’s sister and possibly, even better, the 50-year-old spirit of said boyfriend”.

“Uh… Well, I’m Ben.”

…Said Klaus.

The actual Ben shot Klaus a dirty look. He didn’t really get why until Klaus realized, oh yeah… Ben is typically visible to other people now. The woman was staring at Ben, waiting for him to answer the same question only Klaus had taken his obvious answer in his rushed panic.

“Diego.” Ben said flatly, not-so-subtly elbowing Klaus in the ribs painfully.

“Okay.” The woman said. It wasn’t unkind or accusatory. It wasn’t warm and friendly either. She just seemed disinterested- kind of spacey. She said nothing else until Klaus was forced to continue to fill the uncomfortable silence which was probably her intention in the first place. He swore, this lady was playing power games with him already.

“Well, I was- I’m writing a book.”

_Nice, Klaus. Nice._

Ben gave him a side glance of confusion but he seemed to trust him enough to carry on.

“Myyyy… Uncle was in the- the Vietnam war.”

Her face softened a bit at this.

Did that… mean something to her? Was it just that awkward veteran appreciation everyone felt the need to show?

“Yeah.” Klaus cleared his throat, looking over to Ben for help. Ben just raised his eyebrows.

No help. At all. Thanks, Ben.

“Good ol’… Uncle Klaus.” Four swung his arm in a golly-gee fashion. Honestly, he was starting to think they weren’t going to get anywhere with this random lady who probably didn’t give a crap about Klaus’s fake Uncle Klaus or the Vietnam War or Dave or Lizzie.

But that’s where things changed. She shifted her stance in the doorway, her arms unraveling. She visibly swallowed thickly and Klaus _swore_ he saw her eyes brim with the faintest line of water.

_Wait… Fuck, is this-_

“Klaus… Uh, whatever the fuck… Hargroves?”

His heart stopped. His mind stopped. He and the woman, his mind was insisting that it _must_ be her, just stared until Ben cut in.

“Hargreeves… Actually.”

“Yeah…” Lizzie took a step back. “That one. C’mon in.”

So that would make her, what… Like, 66? She didn’t look it. Her hair was long and wavy- graying, sure, but it wasn’t all too apparent with her already blonde locks. She wore long flowy, floral pants that Klaus first mistook for a skirt. Her shirt was a mismatched band tee- the letters too faded to read in the dull morning light.

The house itself was stuffed high with boxes in corners, furniture pushed against the walls and paperwork strewn over surfaces. Otherwise, it was cozy. Outdated, but what could you expect from a home that had been kept in the family since the 1940s?

“Sorry for the mess. Been trying to get out of here forever now.”

“You’re moving?” Klaus asked, helping himself to picking up some of the little trinkets on the dresser in the small living room. A little glass angel, some pens, some… weed?

Nice, Lizzie. Nice.

“Yeah.”

“When?”

“Three weeks ago.”

Klaus snorted and nodded, nervously clasping his hands behind his back and rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet.

“Soooo… You knew- uh- Uncle Klaus, yeah?”

“ _I_ never met him. I just knew about him. Through Dave’s letters. Can I get you something to drink? Something to eat? Do you like spoiled milk?”

“Not particularly.”

“Two waters then.” She chuckled to herself, dipping into the kitchen and out of sight. Klaus and Ben exchanged small smiles.

They both liked her already.

“So what- You want to hear about Dave, then?” Lizzie’s voice called from around the corner. Klaus looked at Ben and Ben looked right back at him, whispering,

“What? This is your show, Dude. Go on…”

“Uh, yeah!” He called back.

“What do you want to know?”

Looked at Ben. Ben looked back. Klaus stuttered,

“Everything?”

Lizzie reappeared with two glasses of water, handing them to Klaus and Ben… or rather, Ben and Diego in her eyes. There was some real Hargreeve-ception going on here.

“Everything. Well, I can manage what I can in two hours. I’ve got an appointment so the Doc can check my lung butter.”

Klaus smiled curiously. She was so quirky. He absolutely adored her.

“Lung butter?” Ben asked, amused in a same manner. Lizzie nodded and reached for something on the couch cushion before sitting down and raising it to her lips.

“Got the cancer in my lungs.” She said before taking a hit off of her bowl filled with lush Mary Jane. Klaus’s smile dropped.

“Oh.”

“Sorry.” Ben awkwardly mumbled as Lizzie blew out a cloud of smoke.

“Don’t be. Gotta go before I lose my devilishly handsome good looks, you know?” She laughed, holding the bowl out to Ben and Klaus. “Boys?”

“Oh, uh-“

“Sure!” Klaus chirped, a little too excited by the fact that he was bonding and being smoked out by Dave’s little sister right now. Ben slapped his reaching hand though.

“ _Ben._ ” The actual-Ben warned through gritted teeth. Klaus pouted and retreated to the love seat that sat perpendicular to Lizzie’s couch. He plopped down with a sigh, Ben sitting next to him.

“Sorry. Had to give it all up.”

“Ew. No, _I’m_ sorry.” Lizzie joked before taking another hit. She set it aside and reached behind her, pulling a book from the shelf and stretching it over to Klaus’s lap. “You know, I don’t get to talk about David much anymore. I was just thinking about him this morning though when the Twilight Zone reruns were on the Television. He really liked that show. Thought Rod Serling was cute. Oh- I hope I’m not bursting any bubbles. You- you do know right? I’m assuming…”

Klaus frowned at her, carefully opening the cover of the dusty book in his lap. Lizzie raised her eyebrows at him, a little mischievous smile on her lips.

“That my brother… and your uncle…”

“Oh.” Klaus chuckled, finding the situation of Lizzie breaking the news of Dave and Klaus’s gayness to Klaus himself rather hilarious but also feeling a bubble of pain rise into his throat just from hearing someone talk about it- to talk about them… someone who was around at that time- who indirectly experienced their relationship real time. “Yeah. Yeah, I know.” He fought to force the words through his tightening throat. He decided to limit the talking before he broke down right there and confused the hell out of the whole situation. His eyes focused on the pictures in the book below him instead.

The first one nearly crushed Klaus’s whole world immediately. Dave- the Dave he knew and loved the death with every inch of his body- stared up at him with a big goofy grin and floppy curls over his forehead. He was a little younger, maybe mid-20s, and he stood in front of a giant ornate building with his arms outstretched triumphantly.

“That’s Dave at Mizzou- I don’t know why he looks so happy in the photo. It was when we picked him up after his graduation. He partied so hard he had to have his stomach pumped the night before. Dumbass.” Lizzie laughed and shook her head as if Dave was in the room with them as she relentlessly teased him. “And that one-“ She pointed. “Is Dave and his true love.”

Before Klaus even saw the photo she referred to, his heart had a small palpitation as his mind cycled through a billion different thoughts in a second: Does she mean me? How would she get a picture of me? Maybe it’s Mick? _That_ would slightly hurt, if he was going to be honest. What if it was someone else completely? Dave never told him about anyone else!

Klaus glanced down and saw a photo of Dave bent over the open hood of an old baby blue convertible with chrome, white accents, his face stiff with concentration and his shirt discarded over the side mirror. Klaus felt his stupid, self-conscious gripes melt away and his heart fill with a deep-seated hurt that he knew all to well- it was the feeling he got when he just couldn’t stand how much he truly loved this guy- when he couldn’t stand how much he truly missed him.

“Oh, heh…” Klaus chuckled, swallowing thickly.

_No tears. That’d be SO weird. You’re gonna freak her out._

Lizzie dug through a few other picture books to Klaus’s delight. He tried his hardest to make this a happy affair rather than a sad one. It helped when Lizzie’s eyes lit up at the discovery of every new picture. Klaus could tell that she was telling the truth- she must’ve truly not had the opportunity to talk about Dave anymore. That realization stung Klaus deep in his insides. Time was cruel. Time was evil, he decided. Slowly, good men were forgotten and heroic deaths went unnoticed. Loved ones died off, carrying the last bit of your legacy with them. Soon you were just… insignificant in the eyes of the new world.

Dave was the furthest thing from insignificant in Klaus’s world though. Lizzie may be one of the last people on Earth who still had really known Dave, but now Klaus was here to carry that legacy on further.

The question was if Dave would be just that- a legacy- or if his story wasn’t quite over yet. Truthfully, Klaus was kind of hoping to walk through the door and immediately find his boyfriend waiting. Until that happened though, he was enjoying being introduced to this other universe that was Dave’s home-life.

More photos:

Dave holding a young, beautiful Lizzie in his arms before he left for his first tour.

Dave in uniform, that distant, sultry frown on his face. 

Dave and Mick. Lizzie didn’t give the full background on that, admitting it was a long story. Little did she know that Klaus already knew all about that.

Then, to Klaus’s giddy delight, they dug into earlier photo books that were tattered and faded but still possibly the most amusing things Klaus had ever seen in his life:

One-year-old Dave was absolutely _precious_. His eyes were an even brighter, more electrifying blue and his blond hair were just little whisps on his head.

Toddler Dave again, dressed as a Dalmatian for Halloween.

_Oh, we must simply just_ must _recreate this._ Klaus thought aloud in his head as if Dave could hear him. Who knew, maybe he could?

Pre-teen Dave holding baby Lizzie with a wide, encompassing grin on his face.

Teenage Dave with dark clothes, refusing to smile for the camera.

“That was his angsty phase. He was such a pain in the ass then.” Lizzie recalled, a melancholy laugh light on her lips. Klaus snorted, trying not to seem too personally amused by all of this information. Lizzie seemed delighted by his interest anyway. “I’m sorry. Did you want to know more about when he was enlisted or…”

“Oh, uh. This is- This is perfect. The book is more about… Er… Not forgetting the people, you know?”

“Well… That’s a very noble thing of you to do. Hell, at your age I was still fucking around at Woodstock until I didn’t remember it the next morning.”

… _That’s so cool. I’m sorry, but do I look UP to Dave’s YOUNGER sister?_

Flipping another page, Klaus found some more stuff of young-Lizzie, his eyes studying the life that Dave could never watch unfold. Her hair was even longer than it was now back then, parted down the middle and in slight disarray. She wore no shoes in almost all the photos regardless of where they were taken, her garments what Klaus would consider the staple “flower child” clothing of the late 60s, early 70s.

“That’s you?” Klaus asking, pointing to a picture of Lizzie holding up an anti-war sign amongst a sea of other young people. She seemed a little unsettled by this question but took a puff from her bowl before nodding and blowing smoke to the side.

“Mm. After Dave died… Well… I didn’t know a person could feel that much rage. That much…” She coughed and reached for her water, taking a swig as Ben and Klaus exchanged sad looks.

“I’m sorry. Couldn’t have been easy losing your brother.”

“Don't worry about me. You’re here for David and your Uncle, yeah? You know, I, unfortunately, lost most of the letters he sent me, but let me tell ya- I _knew_ my brother. I knew him better than anyone. And even from what he wrote, I could tell that whatever he found in this Klaus..." 

Klaus held his breath. 

"...Well, he loved him. He loved him a lot. I'll leave it at that. Hey, want to see his room?" 

Lizzie didn't give Klaus too much time to let her words sink in and maybe that was for the best- if there was ever a moment he was going to lose his shit over since entering this house, it would've been right then as Dave's sister told Klaus how much he loved him without even knowing that _he_ was that Klaus. 

But the room thing sparked his interest and gave him a distraction. Klaus frowned.

“Like… it’s still…”

“Yeah, c’mon.” She waved, standing up and leading them down a narrow hallway to the back of the house.

It was like Klaus had traveled back in time all over again as soon as he entered Dave’s old room. The colors, the decorations, the records strewn about, photos, travel books… even the _smell_ was ever so faintly there after all these years- the sweet tobacco and mint that Klaus loved- it all screamed Dave.

He was astounded that the room had survived all the years that passed by after his death, but as Lizzie explained,

“My Mother was the only one living here for about a decade after Dave’s death. She refused to let anyone change anything, including this room. After a while, it kinda freaks you out having your dead brother’s room still exactly as he left it. No one would really come in here. I wanted to, I just… Even now, it’s a little hard. Anyway, Mom died. My dick oldest brother got the house but didn’t live here, he just… kept it. The fuck-muffin wouldn’t give it to me either, even though _I_ wanted to actually take care of it or sell it or _something._ Kept it from me out of spite. Well, _finally_ , he died not too long ago. Sorry, that’s dark. Sorry, I’m rambling. I need some tea. Want some tea?”

Before an answer came, Lizzie was already walking back to the kitchen. Klaus chuckled and glanced at Ben.

“She’s a character alright.” Ben agreed, slowly observing the room of scattered belongings, posters, memorabilia and more. Klaus was about to run to Monty the record player who he spotted in the corner, but something even more intriguing and crushing caught his attention too. Klaus slowly and stiffly made his way over to Dave’s helmet, taking it carefully into his hands like delicate glass. “So, do you feel anything? Any… like… _ghostly_ presences?”

Ben was talking, but the words went right through Klaus. His fingers were touching he familiar cloth over the helmets they wore every damn day in ‘Nam… The faded words Dave wrote on the material too smudged out to read anymore.

“Klaus?”

“Uh… No. Nothing. Really, nothing.” Klaus set the helmet down a little more aggressively than he intended. He felt Ben’s sympathy-eyes shooting lasers into his back, but he didn’t dare turn around. Sympathy wasn’t going to bring Dave back.

Not able to stop himself from digging deeper- discovering more about Dave’s more hidden life (at least from his eyes) as much as it hurt. He went to the closet, his fingers gently thumbing through the hung shirts that looked so stiff and untouched that he was half-expecting them to be plastic when he touched them.

“Oh, heh. That was Dave’s favorite before he left. Wouldn’t take it off. I always teased him and called him Brando. Old, ratty thing.” Lizzie handed both Ben and Klaus a cup full of steaming (jasmine? Maybe hibiscus?) tea and sat down at Dave’s old desk.

They stayed for a while longer. Lizzie told them about Dave being drafted which, Klaus already knew most of it, but that’s what she thought they came for. However, Klaus _did_ find out more about her post-Dave’s lifespan. It was strange knowing things about Dave’s sister that he didn’t even know.

She had a daughter. Her husband died a while ago, unfortunately before the birth of her two grandkids.

She was a fierce activist- even still. Klaus realized that a lot of the clutter in the house _were_ pamphlets and signs and such.

And, every once and a while, she just randomly felt like going to Dave’s grave which was right around the corner.

Klaus didn’t feel as though he was ready for this- to be next to Dave again, only this time divided by 6 feet of dirt.

“Sorry, what?” Klaus coughed up tea back into his cup when he suddenly realized that Lizzie was trying to talk to him.

“You okay, kiddo? I said I could give you directions if it interests you. There are some other vets there too.”

So strange to be called kiddo by someone you always imagined as half your age. Lizzie got up to go get a pen and paper and Klaus did the same- but out of Dave’s desk and as fast and quietly as he could.

“What are you doing?” Ben placed his cup down and jumped up defensively, affected by Klaus’s sudden burst in determined energy. Klaus didn’t answer but let his actions be explanation enough. He shuffled through some piano books, opening the cover of one titled with some French shit he couldn’t pronounce, and took a pen to the sheets.

_4 King Stre…_

He started scrawling, Ben leaning over his shoulder to see their own address unfold.

“You think that’ll work?” He whispered awfully closely to Klaus’s ear. He shrunk away from Ben’s personal-space invasion, shrugging his shoulder up to his ear defensively.

“Heh, stop that tickles.” He stumbled backward, his back brushing up against Dave’s favorite leather jacket in the closet. He turned as he heard Lizzie’s footsteps coming back, the floorboards creaking.

“Klaus! What the-“

But Klaus was already doing what he did best- acting on pure impulse. He tore the jacket from its hanger, ran to the window, and tried his best to open the pane that looked so seldom opened that it was sealed shut.

“Fuck. Fuck. Help me. Hurry.” Klaus waved Ben over, his fingertips stinging with effort from the stubborn-ass window that made a terrible, strained screeching sound with still no results.

This was going to look _very_ bad to this insanely kind, welcoming woman that trusted them to come into her deceased brother’s room but Klaus felt the urge to do this in his bones and he wasn’t all too good at telling his bones “no”.

As soon as Ben’s strength was added to Klaus’s efforts, the window flew open with a loud _BANG_. Klaus didn’t have time to cringe about it though- he threw the jacket out onto the lawn and shut it with an equally loud _SLAM_ as Ben went to close the closet door to hide the evidence.

And wouldn’t you know, Lizzie walking in the room _right_ at that second with paper in hand and a confused frown on her face.

“You okay?”

“Yeah!”

“Yeah!”

Klaus and Ben answered much too quickly and urgently, both of them pretending to be relaxed and nonchalant.

“Knocked some records over. My bad.” Klaus apologized, bending over to pick up Elvis, Yardbirds, and Etta James…

_Fuck. FUCK, this hurts. He had all of these with him in ‘Nam._

Klaus felt like it could’ve been yesterday that they were slowly swaying to Etta in their little hideaway that Dave built for them- the rain pouring down outside and isolating them away on their own island, safe from danger and prying eyes.

That was one of his favorite nights of his whole existence. He wished he could take the records too. Not that he’d ever be able to listen- he thought he might go absolutely mad with grief if he did.

Lizzie bid them farewell not too long after that. She gave them her number in case they had any more questions. She even gave him the number of a few other families that had loved ones that died in the war to help with their “book”. She had such a nurturing way about her which you wouldn’t expect from her otherwise more blunt, humorous personality.

"It was great meeting you, Ben and Diego." She had said. 

_What? Oh... Yeah..._ Klaus had to remember their aliases. 

Even as Ben and Klaus were walking to their car, a couple of neighborhood kids looking to be about 11 or 12 flew over to her door, begging to feed the squirrels in her backyard until she gave in and waved them in. It admittedly made Klaus feel better that she wasn’t always alone- that house was crumbling around Lizzie and he could see it getting lonely fast.

Making sure he didn’t forget to pick up Dave’s jacket from the side yard first, they got in the car and followed Lizzie’s instructions to the graveyard. Klaus drove this time. He didn’t mind- he needed a distraction to keep his mind from helplessly turning over the surge of lost memories he had just uncovered. There was such conflict in his core- a deep-rooted, newfound admiration for Dave and the human being he was, and an equally piercing soreness from the vacancy that was left in Klaus’s being from the absence of said human being.

He wanted drugs. Plain and simple, he wanted drugs so bad. He wanted Dave more though, and this gravesite was his last idea… or Ben’s last idea, technically.

“Wait- what did that sign say?” Klaus suddenly slammed on the breaks as they coasted over a bridge that arched above a large river that cut the city in half.

“Wasn’t looking.” Ben dismissively shrugged, frowning at Klaus like he was trying to decipher his brother’s impulses. Klaus threw the car into reverse and shot them backward a little more forcefully than intended, having to slam on the breaks to stop in time to read the plaque he got the smallest glimpse of.

“In memory of Bryant Stevenson…” Ben read out loud, squinting to see the tarnished letters. Like a shotgun bullet piercing through Klaus’s more-covered memories, he recalled the only instance that Dave called Mick by his real name.

_Bryant_.

“Motherfucker.” Klaus strained against his seat belt to look over the edge of the bridge to the stirring waters below.

_This is where Mick died. This is where he, Dave, and Lizzie crashed into the water._

A sudden chill shot up Klaus’s spine and he shivered back down into his seat, gripping the wheel. This was weird- too weird. It was like this entire place was a ghost town, the spirits of Dave’s hometown stories running amuck in a continuous loop for all of eternity, invisible to everyone who carried on their daily lives without a single care about who Dave was… Who Mick or “Bryant” was… That good people died.

“Klaus. Calm down, Man. We don’t have to go if you’re not ready.” Klaus felt a cool touch on his shoulder.

_Oh._

His breathing was noticeably labored again. Klaus shut his eyes and gritted his teeth together.

_Not now. Don’t freak out now. Dave needs you. You gotta do this._

“I’m good.”

And with that, there were no more pit stops on the way to the cemetery.

_Down the main row._

_Take a left at the mausoleum._

_All the way down towards the wall._

_Fourth row in the Vietnam section._

Lizzie’s directions were flawless and thank _Christ_ for that because before they even drove through the gates of the gravestone infested yards, Klaus could hear the ghost party loud and clear within the walls of his skull. He had his hands pressed firmly against his hears before they even exited the car.

“Mm…” Klaus groaned, his forehead falling against the steering wheel. He heard Ben trying to talk to him, but couldn’t figure out what he was saying the way he was blocking out as much of the chaos as he could.

The only way they made it through the walkways surrounded by shimmery people and whiny moans was with Ben’s hand on Klaus’s back and Klaus’s hands still glued to his ears. There were a few people at a gravesite not far from them that probably thought Klaus had some major issues, but he didn’t care- his mind had tunnel-vision focus on reaching Dave.

_Please be here. Please be here. Please be here._ He could barely hear himself think. As much as he wanted to see Dave, he also would feel terribly guilty if they did, in fact, find David in this cesspool of lost souls all piled on top of one another- knowing no existence other than circling their small plots of land eternally with no concept of time or any perception.

“Almost there, I think.” Klaus heard Ben’s muffled voice in his ear to which he just painfully nodded and focused on the only thing he could-

_One foot in front of another. March forward, soldier._

Klaus didn’t really know what he was expecting. He should’ve known this would happen: As soon as he saw the letters etched deep into the stone,

_DAVID…_

His knee buckled and dropped to the ground, kneeling above the body he left alone in the unmarked forests of Vietnam 50 years ago- the one that used to hold him and rub his back until the ghosts dissipated. The one that grabbed his hand and pulled him to his feet to dance to Dave’s favorite music. The body that carried Klaus’s high-as-fuck ass through the dark wood before they were even dating, falling into his misadventures and doing everything in his power to keep Klaus safe.

Number Four felt a sob at the back of his throat build until it was too painful to hold in. He sucked in a shaky breath and let out a small anguished moan, feeling Ben’s arms quickly wrapped around him.

“Breathe, dude. If you lose it now, the rest of them will get control.” Ben reminded him of the other spirits lurking nearby, always attracted to Klaus’s energy and sensing his unique connection to the dead-world. “You want me to give you a minute?”

Klaus numbly nodded, his tears quickly subsiding and his breathing slowing to a normal pace. Ben gave him a light squeeze on the shoulder before relinquishing his steadying grip around Klaus and fading back to do whatever Ben did when he disappeared.

Klaus blinked the blurriness from his eyes to focus on the letters again.

_David Michael Katz_

…And the usual crap: Beloved Son, Brother, Friend, yada-yada-yada. Klaus never cared much for how people chose to remember the dead. It always sounded the same to him. Would this gravestone tell people how passionate he was? How much he loved music? How kind he was? How selfless? How brave? How charming?

“Hi…” It came out just barely a broken whisper that Klaus himself hardly recognized. He didn’t feel anything here- no outstanding presence or feeling of Dave anywhere near. It could’ve been muted by the other clusterfuck of voices in the back of his mind, but somewhere deep in his gut, Klaus knew he wasn’t here.

But his body was, and that’s the closest Klaus had gotten to seeing Dave again since the bullet ripped through his heart. And so, Klaus moved to carefully sit crisscrossed on the ground, nervously pulling at the grass in front of him as he talked to his baby.

He didn’t realize how much he had been “telling” Dave in his head since they were separated- how much he wanted to share with him but couldn’t.

Klaus talked about the strangeness of returning to his time. He talked about seeing his siblings again and what they’ve been up to- the end of the world and how they saved it.

“I know, I know. Your boyfriend is kind of a big-deal hero. Save the applause, please.” Klaus sadly smiled, biting his lip and carrying on.

He told him about the PTSD as irritatingly hard it was to admit- he and Dave shared everything with one another, and that didn’t stop just because death tried to get in the way.

He told him about his powers- how they were evolving in ways he never thought possible.

“Oh! Baby- I’m sober! Isn’t that a hoot? I think you’d like sober me… I think. I hope I’m not too boring for you now. I know you’d be proud… that you _are_ proud. It’s only ‘cause of you, you know. Because if I wasn’t sober, I-“

Klaus’s voice unexpectedly broke off mid-sentence. He looked up at the sky, trying to compose himself as the pain built at the back of his throat once again.

“…Where are you?” He whispered. “I’ve been waiting- I’ve been searching… I- I don’t know what else to do. I feel like I’m failing you, and I- I just hope you’re okay, wherever you are. Maybe you like it better there- maybe you moved on and that’s fine if you’re happy, I just… Wanna know… you know? I- Just please be okay.”

A tear escaped down his cheek and Klaus bowed his head.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you like you always did for me. I’m really sorry.”

His fingers toyed with the cool metal plate resting on his chest beneath his shirt. His skin felt the engravings of the same name on the gravestone. His eyes just stared at the _Star of David_ etched in the top of Dave’s stone, his fingers grasping the dog tags as tightly as they could. His heart beat underneath his fist that he rested on his chest.

He missed Dave’s heart- he missed laying his head against his chest and listening to it thud calmly next to his ear.

Klaus’s own heart nearly stopped from shock when he felt a ghost touch his back.

“Ah!” Klaus yelped, shrinking away from the spirits that were starting to figure out that they could rip him to shreds if they wanted to. Klaus swung an arm back instinctively to ward them off, accidentally knocking Ben upside the head.

“Ow, fuck, dude.” Ben complained, rubbing his face and shoving Klaus for good measure.

“Well, why’d you scare me?”

“Klaus… I think we’d better go.” Ben admitted, giving Klaus the sad-eyes. Klaus sighed and glanced up at the sky that was setting into a deep pink, orange. Had they really been here that long? It was already getting dark? “I don’t think we should be here when it gets dark.”

Klaus turned back to look at Dave’s gravestone again, not sure if he wanted to remember every detail or if he wanted to banish the memory of it quickly from his mind. He said his goodbyes in his mind, knowing that they probably weren’t really reaching Dave but doing it more for himself.

So many goodbyes… Was that all that was left of their relationship was new ways of having to let go?

“Well… hit me up sometime.” Klaus said aloud, pulling a small smile from Ben who gave Klaus’s shoulder another squeeze.

“Okay… ready?”

Was he ready to leave Dave all over again? No. He wasn’t ready the first time, he wasn’t ready now, and he’d never be ready for the rest of his life. But the universe didn’t give a flying fuck, did it? It would just keep mercilessly ripping them away from one another until, what? Klaus would slowly forget Dave like the rest of the world seemed to?

 _No._ Klaus thought. _Never_.

So, no. Klaus wasn’t “ready”. But would he keep going anyway? Keep holding onto hope that Dave would still return? That there was still some kind of possibility that he’d see that dopey smile again?

“Yes.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 3-27 EDIT: To anyone who may be coming back to this story hoping that it's updated, SO SORRY. I'll explain my absence when I finally post the next chapter and get back on track. Coming very soon! Thanks for the patience!
> 
> Thanks for your patience! This ended up being a long one. 
> 
> NEXT UP: Klaus returns home to his siblings waiting for him. Later, he works more on his powers, testing his limits as his self-destructive habits intensify to keep his mind off the fact that Dave STILL is a no-show... until, he isn't.


	4. Désolé

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Klaus comes home to find his siblings waiting for him. Meanwhile, his bad habits and distractions are getting out of hand. Also, here's some Dave.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *nervous laughter* Hi...  
> A lot has happened since I last updated and I apologize greatly for it. The pandemic pushed me out of my school so I had to pack up and move back home, my Senior Thesis Film that I spent months on was canceled, I became severely unmotivated and sad, and then I spilled coffee all over my computer (it's okay now! hopefully). But I'm just one person affected by something that's affecting millions in a similarly negative way. Hope all of you are doing okay. Stay safe out there and watch out for more speedy updates! I'm back in the game. Thank you all for always being so patient and understanding! 
> 
> Also, excuse any typing or formatting issues- I'm posting immediately before proofreading because I've just gotta get this out there asap

There wasn’t much talking on the way back to the Academy. Klaus was a little down about the disappointing results of their road trip. It was an adventure alright, and he did learn a lot about Dave just when he thought he knew him inside out. However, none of that could compare to _actually_ having Dave _there_.

He also wasn’t looking forward to the awkward family dynamic waiting for him at home. Honestly, during all of the Dave-discoveries, he kind of forgot the reason he so heatedly walked out in the first place. He was still pretty P.O.’ed about the whole keeping his inheritance from him thing. If anything, he was angrier about the fact that they kept it a secret like hiding the true identity of the tooth fairy from a child. The actual premise behind it though- the reasoning- the feeling he currently had in the pit of his stomach after leaving Missouri empty-handed… he kind of got it. If he was alone right now, he had no confidence in himself that he would be able to withstand the lonely call of drugs in the back of his brain.

But still… you know… fuck them.

Klaus was such a sucker when it came to grudges though- he couldn’t hold them for the life of him. It didn’t help that as soon as he begrudgingly walked through the front doors, he was hit with a ton of Allie-bricks. Her arms were squeezing the living daylights out of him. Klaus swore he heard his ribs creaking with tension.

“Uuuugh…” Klaus wheezed, giving in and wrapping his arms around her in return. “Fine, fiiiiiine.”

Just like that, he every intention to come in angry and unforgiving was dissolved in one simple, relieved hug from his sis. Then, like a parading circus of curious super-freaks, the rest of them started to catch onto the commotion and joined Numbers 4, 6, and 3 in the living room where Klaus stormed out just a couple days prior.

“Told them you’d be back.” Five grumbled, his hair in disarray and eyes groggy. At 5PM in the evening, Klaus guessed he had woken the little turd up from a late-day nap. He wondered if he missed a mission while he was gone- the only time Five every napped was when he had to do some major time-jumpage.

“Had to run out of my money sometime.” Diego teased, pushing at Klaus’s head as he passed by to drop on the sofa. At least he didn’t seem mad at the whole wallet-stealing thing. Klaus smiled sheepishly and shrugged.

“That’s not the _only_ reason…” he defensively murmured to himself, wrapping his arms in front of him as a sort of guard from the awkwardness of this whole situation. He felt like he was an exhibition at the zoo that his siblings all emerged to see:

_Emotionally fucked up addict with a library of trauma, unhinged superpowers, and explosive tendencies. Step right up._

He couldn’t complain all too much though, because the rest of his welcoming back home was rather calm and collected- something he wasn’t used to getting from his family. Klaus guessed that giving himself a wide birth from his siblings for a few days was probably just what all of them needed to finally sit down and chat like adults.

And Golly Gee George, that’s what they did. Wow, maybe their family _was_ changing for the better after the whole Vanya situation. Maybe they saw how they isolated Vanya to the point of detonating a fiery mushroom cloud of chaos and didn’t want to make the same mistake with Klaus. Still, it made him feel kind of like a fragile child that everyone was side-stepping, but it was a start.

Luther started, awkwardly searching for words to apologize about the whole ordeal. Klaus found it rather humorous that the family never much cared for Luther commandeering situations as “Number 1” unless it was something they didn’t really want to do like ungracefully apologize.

“It was… wrong to not tell you. And I- _We’re_ … Sorry. Klaus, we’re sorry, okay?”

Klaus shrugged from where he laid sprawled out on the couch, cacooned in his new favorite leather jacket.

“Okay…” He hesitantly responded, really out of his element here. This wasn’t how his family usually did things so it was like they were all trying to find their footing across a thin sheet of ice while blindfolded.

“Is- I- Are you still mad?”

Six pairs of eyes stared at Klaus who refused to stare back, fiddling with the zipper that Dave must’ve touched a billion times before. Klaus had a moment of uncontained confidence.

“Are you still keeping my money from me?”

The whole room seemed to shift at the sudden slightly biting retort that cut through the tension like an aggressive knife through butter.

Or like a bullet through flesh.

 _STOP._ Klaus reprimanded himself. Now wasn’t the time to get all worked up unless this was to turn into a family therapy session which he just didn’t have the energy for right now… or ever.

Diego sat on a chair close the couch, pulling it even closer until his knees were pressed up again the same cushions that Klaus laid over. Klaus still refused to look, afraid that if he met his brother’s eyes, everything that he’s been keeping inside would explode out of him into a disgusting mess of self-pity.

_And all over our nicest rug, too!_ Klaus mused to himself, not even hearing what Diego was slowly trying to spit out to him. Klaus’s hand had found its way into the jacket’s pocket where he felt a protrusion of something about the size of his palm. After his fingers rapped around cool metal, he pulled out an old _Altoids_ canister, the sight of the familiar, heavily Dave-charged object sending shivers down his spine. There were still mints that rattled around in there.

_50-year-old mints. Gross. Do they expire? I should offer one to Ben._

“Hey. Dude. C’mon.” Diego pushed down the Altoids in Klaus’s hand so that it ceased taking all of Klaus’s attention. Four raised an eyebrow at Diego, shaking his head and the memories from it.

“What. What. Sorry.”

“Look at me right now and tell me you are 100% positive that not a dime will be spent on Narcotics. And then, I’ll give it back. Gladly. You know yourself better, dude. We won’t keep it from you.”

Klaus’s face relaxed in a bit of surprise, not used to the idea of this strategy… _Compromise_ , they call it. Something that was once a foreign word in this household.

He glanced back at the rest of his siblings who all watched, waiting for Klaus to answer expectantly. It seemed that no one had any other agendas and that they were all pretty supportive of what Diego was offering up. It seemed that they had probably already discussed this prior to Klaus’s return.

Klaus returned his eyes forward to Diego’s, a little unsettled by the dark questioning in his brothers’ irises. He could tell that D was being truthful and honest- if, right now, Klaus said,

“Pfft. Yeah, bro. I’m kosher.”

The whole situation would dissolve into what Klaus was fighting for in the first place. He’d have his money- he didn’t know how much but when you’re broke, any bit is a fortune.

But this… this _honesty_ thing. This crap that his family was pulling on him, this… respectful negotiating- it made Klaus start to rethink himself in a deep-thought, introspective way that begged the question,

_Am I actually ready to be responsible for this?_

And damn, Klaus doesn’t think shit through! He barely thinks at all, he just _does_. He wondered if maybe he preferred his family’s other way of doing things- shouting, harassing, and squabbling the shit out of each other.

_Nooooooo, c’mon. You’ve always wanted this. They’re treating you as an equal for once, dummy. Don’t muck it up._

Ugh. Being sober and matured (or at least more matured than earlier- let’s not get crazy, here) sucked sometimes.

“I can’t.” Klaus murmured so quietly that he himself barely heard it.

“What?”

“I said keep it, dammit.” Klaus snapped before he could hold it in, Diego’s face softening into sympathetic understanding.

“You sure?”

“Yeah… For now.”

“As _soon_ as you want it, just tell me. It’s yours.”

“Yeah.” Klaus sighed, sitting himself up and pulling Dave’s leather jacket further around himself. “Can I get some T-Bell cash though? I’m gettin’ nippy.”

* * *

“That was really mature.” Ben said when they later sat in Klaus’s room, stomachs full of Chalupas and Nacho Supremes. Klaus glanced up from where he was doodling on the inside cover of an old notebook.

“Shut up.”

Ben smiled. Klaus smiled.

“Is the heart-to-heart over now?”

Not too much later, Klaus was drifting off from the lack of sleep he endured from their little road-trip these past few days, Ben reading casually beside him. Just as he was falling into a pretty swirl of dreamy landscapes the same hue as Dave’s eyes, a knock ripped him back awake.

Klaus yelped and jumped in his bed.

“Sorry! Sorry…” Vanya spread her hands out in front of her defensively.

“Jesus, V.” Klaus settled back down into his leather jacket shell. He yawned through his next question. “Do we have another mission thingy?”

“No, no… Quiet on that front. Five is still following a lead about some history change in- Well, doesn’t matter right now. I was just going to go train and I was wondering- Well, I want you to come with. Will you come?”

Klaus blinked.

“Why?”

He didn’t mean to be so abrupt and seemingly accusatory, but he and Vanya had never really been close and as far as he could remember, she’s never asked him to do anything with her before.

“You’ve got newish powers too. Don’t you wanna test them out a bit?” She pressed on patiently. Klaus pursed his lips and glanced at Ben who gave a simple shrug. He turned back to Vanya.

“Yeah. Yeah, okay. Sure.”

* * *

“Woah. I had no idea you could do that.” Vanya breathed with eyes the size of the moon, her gaze intent on following Klaus’s every move as he clenched his fists and flexed his arms beside him until the ground rumbled and stones shook from their crevasses. Klaus let go of his hold and relaxed, the world once again still. He shrugged.

“Yeah. Ben and I figure how you get your powers from sound, I can only get mine from nearby dead peeps. It’s why I can-“

He twist his wrist just a bit to focus the buzz of energy he felt around him until a crack split through the pavement of the abandoned lot they stood on. Vanya jumped beside him, but this was all old news to Klaus. After they returned from the past and saved the world from impending doom, he and Ben had pretty quickly discovered some of Klaus’s more… “hidden” talents. Some by accident, some by practice.

“-do more relating close to the ground. ‘Cuz dead people are in the ground, you know?”

“What the fuck!” Vanya laughed, a smile that could compete with a Cheshire’s spread wide on her face. Klaus couldn’t help but be infected by her excitement, a hesitant chuckle escaping his own lips. He had never heard Vanya swear before. It was funny- like a little old lady swearing. The two things didn’t seem to fit together.

He liked this newly confident Vanya.

“Why are you getting all hot and bothered- You could do that in your sleep, Madam Superwoman.”

“I’m way more of a Jean Grey.”

“Nerd alert.”

Vanya closed her eyes for a bit and held out her hand towards the crack in the ground the Klaus created. The air shifted and the hairs on Klaus’s arms stood up, a shiver running up his spine. The sensation was familiar- it happened whenever you were in a half-mile radius of Vanya going all Gung-Ho with her powers.

Right before his eyes, the deep cut in the asphalt started to continue and get longer, the deep line slicing through the stone beneath their feet like butter and following whatever path Vanya’s hand directed it to take. This bitch was literally _drawing_ in the blacktop with sheer, directed force.

Klaus gave her a half-lidded glare.

“Alright, show off.”

Vanya let up and studied her work- she had carved an umbrella into the rocky terrain, a small, proud grin on her face.

“I don’t know. It just… feels better to know someone else is just starting to recognize their powers too. Kinda scary sometimes.”

Klaus watched her raise her arms out in front of her and start to levitate every twig, pebble, and leaf from the ground into a controlled hover around them. He sighed, feeling a bit of the constantly overlying tension in his chest leave with his exhale.

She was right, now that he thought about it- it _did_ feel better to know that Vanya could at least share this part of their lives together. Usually, Klaus’s situations were so far from being able to be related to by anyone else that he just always assumed he was in it alone- save for Ben’s support from the side, but there was only so much Benji could understand. Why didn’t he think of talking to Vanya sooner?

Klaus held his own hands up in front of him, trying to mimick his sister and do what Ben always told him-

“Stop thinking about all the other shit. Focus only on the energy inside of you.”

…to which Klaus would call him Mr. Miyagi and Ben would get frustrated that he wasn’t concentrating.

Anyway, Klaus focused on one thing and one thing only- countering Vanya’s force and trying to ground all the flying little do-dads around them.

But _fuck_ was she strong. Immediately, Klaus felt an almost painfully solid resistance against his efforts. She sensed him right away too, a slight roll of her eyes and grin as she understood they were no in a metaphysical arm-wrestling match of sorts. Klaus was way out of his league- he got that message pretty quickly. Still, he kept persisting in trying to use his powers in opposition, feeling them start to pulse hopelessly within his veins.

Despite Klaus’s efforts, the floaty-stuff only rose higher, a result of Vanya just being that much stronger than Klaus with this kind of stuff. He just didn’t understand exactly _how_ much stronger she was until the surprise appearance of spots started to drift into his vision.

_Huh… That’s interesting…_ His mind starting to separate, Klaus’s thoughts drifting apart from each other like debris floating away in space. His limbs suddenly felt ice cold and his face prickly hot. His veins aggressively thumped along with the desperate effort of his heart and suddenly Klaus forgot why he was pushing himself and his powers. He kind of forgot everything, in fact.

Next thing he knew, his left temple was connecting hard with the unforgiving ground, his body following suit.

“ _Klaus!_ Oh my God, Oh my God…” Vanya’s presence was quickly at his side, the shifts in atmospheric pressure around them letting up and returning to normal. Her small fingers were gently touching his forehead and chest, her hands noticeably shaking.

Klaus tiredly chuckled and squinted against the slightly-cloud-shrouded sunlight.

“Wicked… Who knew hanging out with you was such a rush, V?” He mused, carefully pushing himself up into a shaky sitting position. Her hands still hovered around him like she didn’t know what to do but felt the need to be near at least.

“I’m so sorry, I-“

“Hey, Vanya. Stop. I’m good. I just pushed it too far, no biggie.”

“But- Oh my God, look.” She fretted further, taking his wrist in her hand and turning it so that his palm was facing up and they could see his veins on the underside of his forearm- they were _greyed_.

“Oh. Huh.” He casually observed, turning over his arm in the sunlight to study the way the color was slowly backtracking and leaving his flesh a normal color once again. He felt it- like an icy trickle underneath his skin. He realized that his head buzzed too- not from the hit it took (well, maybe that too) but from the voices that jumbled in the back of his mind like he opened the doors wide open for the dead to set up camp in his brain.

“Mm…” He complained through a moan, bowing his head and rubbing his temples.

“We should get you to Mom.”

“Vanya, vanya… Please, relax. I’ve had worse. Jesus, you ever try drugs?”

Vanya’s face fell and she cocked her head to the side, unamused.

“I’m joking! _Jooooking._ See, this is what I mean. At _least_ take a metaphorical chill pill.”

Vanya sighed and sat back so that they were both crisscrossed on the pavement facing each other. They enjoyed a quick break while Klaus composed himself. He dropped back to the ground, his back stretching out against the slightly uneven, uncomfortable surface.

Once he took a few deep breaths and managed to get the ghost buzz down to an acceptable level, it was kinda nice to just sit there with Vanya. He probably knew her the least out of all her siblings… Well, maybe not Five. He _did_ disappear for over a decade and refused to get close to anyone anyway.

“Sorry, V.” Klaus felt it slip from his lips faster than he was able to rethink it. He didn’t want to ruin this nice, quiet moment with more sappy family crap, but he felt like he needed to do this eventually- especially when he started realizing that he had a sense of what Vanya always felt with their sibling clique- excluded to a lower level of importance and disappointment and detrimentally low expectations.

“…whhhhy?” Vanya carefully tested out the water, seemingly unsure of where this was going. Klaus covered his eyes with his forearm, basking in the sunlight that peeked out further from behind the clouds.

“For all the, like… Everything. Kinda ignoring you for a really long time… and shit.”

Ugh. Klaus was shit at apologizing. Hey, at least he was trying, right?

He heard shift and felt her foot stretch out and lightly kick his own.

“You guys already apologized and it’s fine. I don’t want you to keep feeling guilty. Besides, you hardly ever bothered me.”

“Yeah, but I didn’t _help_ either.”

“You tried.”

“Near the end, yeah. When I finally sobered up and started giving a shit about things again. If I was high like normal, I probably wouldn’t have given two fucks… no offense.”

“None taken.”

They sat quietly some more.

“Well then I’m sorry too.”

Klaus removed his arm and sat up a bit to glance at Vanya to see if she was being for reals.

“No. Vanya. That’s not how it works. You don’t always have to say sorry for existing, _you_ didn’t do anything.” Klaus chuckled, shaking his head.

_Silly, self-conscious Vanya._

She’s taken big strides to become a more confident person, but he still wished she’d take it further. Maybe he could teach her to let go more- Klaus knew _all_ about not giving a shit. He could be like… like a no-shits-given mentor!

“No, no… Listen, this family has a history of neglecting people until they burst… clearly. Not trying to point fingers or- or- Well, you know what I mean. Anyway, the moment it’s not directing at _you_ it just feels so good that you look the other way when it’s happening to someone else.”

This interested Klaus greatly. He sat up, not meaning for this conversation to turn so “therapeutic” but feeling a strange (and potentially dangerous) sense of trust towards Vanya, even if he didn’t truly know her all that well. Maybe it was just her personality.

“What- Like you’re saying-“

“I’ve seen them do it to you too and I’m always too relieved that it’s not me this time that I don’t even think to… I just think you’re stronger than they give you credit for… you know?”

Klaus never thought about this- this… parallel between him and Vanya. He guessed their situations (at least relating to their family) was faintly similar and he wondered how it took him so long to see it.

He didn’t really know what to say- he appreciated her apology even though he still felt like he didn’t really need one, especially from her of all people. So instead, Klaus just smiled at her and clasped his hands flamboyantly in his lap.

“Why don’t we hang out more? We’re clearly the coolest out of the circus.”

Vanya laughed and looked around at the empty lot where she apparently practiced often. Klaus could see the remnants of her “practice sessions” around them- an old overturned car, crushed to a pulp; a hole blasted deep into the grassy terrain a few yards away; trees that unnaturally bent inwards to create a tunnel of sorts leading out to the street.

He promised himself to come practice with her more. He liked her energy.

Maybe that’s why he kept spilling his inner thoughts so easily- she didn’t make a big deal out of it or make him feel crazy for not fitting into the molds that most of their other siblings did.

“Do you ever miss Leonard?”

_Whoops._ Maybe this one was taking it too far. Vanya didn’t seem to think so though (phew). Instead tensed for a second before giving Klaus a small, slightly embarrassed smile.

“I mean… He totally coerced me and tried to destroy our family…”

“Yeah, yeah, that. But… Do you miss him? Or who you thought he was at least?”

Vanya swallowed thickly and stared at Klaus, her mouth contorting a bit into a thinking expression.

Finally, she nodded.

“I mean… Yeah. Yeah, he was the first person who I started to think I could love and vice versa so… Kinda sucks.”

“Yeah.” Klaus pulled his knees to his chest against the sudden breeze and nodded. He looked out to the street where cars passed by every once in a while. Fighting crime and making things float was a normal sibling bonding thing between him and his family but _normal_ things like talking about boys felt so weird and out of place. It did feel a little verifying to know Vanya had somewhat of a sense of what he was going through with Dave. Of course, her boyfriend only spanned a week and he ended up being an evil liar with psychotic tendencies and she herself killed him good and dead, but details, details…

“Wait… Oh my God, Klaus…”

Klaus jumped a bit at the sudden raise in her voice. He snapped his gaze back to his sister whose eyes were widening by the second.

“What!? What?”

“Is that why you’ve been acting weird?”

“What do you mean? I haven’t-“

“Yes! Yes, you have. You’re less talkative, you make less jokes, you’re less annoying… No offense, of course…”

_Pfft. “Of course”._

“…but you- are you having girl troubles? Is that it?” Vanya asked, leaning in like Klaus was about to reveal where the secret treasure was buried. Klaus sighed, a little shocked that Vanya caught onto him so quickly.

“I mean… Not quite.”

“ _Klaus!_ ” She seemed absolutely thrilled which was super kind and made Klaus feel really honored, but if she knew the true gravity of the situation, she wouldn’t seem so enthusiastic. “What do you mean, not quite?”

_He’s dead. Murdered. From the past. I can’t find his ghost._

“Boy trouble.” Klaus said instead, knowing he could thwart any of Vanya’s suspicions by sidetracking with the whole gay thing. He’s used the tactic a lot actually to reveal something that seemed like such a big whoop to everyone else, just to get out of talking about other more pressing things. Was that bad?

Vanya opened her mouth to comment, but Klaus shut it down real quick.

“Don’t really want to talk about it. Not now, anyway.” He admitted, just not knowing where to even start. He and Vanya had already laid some pretty heavy baggage out to dry today- he wasn’t quite ready to spill his heart and soul out to her quite yet.

“I should’ve recognized it was heartbreak. Allie even said-“

Klaus frowned at Vanya and she grimaced apologetically.

“I mean… she just had a hunch something was up with you was all!”

Klaus smiled and rolled his eyes. He’d normally feel annoyed that Allie was speculating about him behind his back but it truly just felt good that someone even noticed or cared.

Why didn’t he spend more time with his sisters again?

“Alright. Wanna go back soon?”

“Yeah.”

Klaus wished every moment after that one was as gratifying, but the dark corners started to close in on him again and that awful pit of hopelessness in his gut started growing to incapacitating levels.

Entré his newly developed habits.

Having no appetite.

Biting around his nails.

Bugging the hell out of Ben.

Practicing his powers and wondering why he could control almost the entire environment around him through his manipulation of the metaphysical world but _still_ couldn’t talk to his own ghost boyfriend.

And running constantly - pushing his limits until he couldn’t run anymore. At least being sore as hell and having lungs that felt like they were about to collapse was a good distraction from any other source of pain.

However, there _was_ a such thing as _too_ much running Klaus had to learn the hard way. It happened on a day- maybe a Thursday… or Monday?- that was dark and dreary as it tended to be this time of the year in the Spring. He liked watching the reflection of the soles of his shoes in the puddles on the ground, right before they’d tear through the water and take him further, further, further through the park where he and Diego liked to run. Diego wasn’t here this time though.

He lost track of how far he had run at this point. That tended to happen when he reached his running high and thoughts drifted in and out of existence. Soon even his thoughts started to get a little muddy and a subtle buzz started humming in the back of his brain. The reflections from the puddles on the ground were unusually bright against the park lights that were now turning on with the arrival of dusk. It was confusing his sense of direction and suddenly the steady beat at which his shoes connected with the floor was hard to keep time with and he had to come to a halt before Klaus tripped over his own feet.

The minute he stopped, the world swirled and he went down hard. He didn’t know how he was overcome with such nausea so quickly, but before he could speculate about it, he was tiredly blinking up at the dark skies where shiny streaks of rain projected down around him.

_Cool._ Was the last coherent thought he had before the tempting call of unconsciousness won the battle for his mind.

* * *

“Hey. C’mon. Get up!” Ben tried for a thousandth time, trying to poke Klaus’s shoulder but watching his finger faze through once again. “…Fuck.”

Ben stood and looked around for any signs of other people but at 8:30PM in a park that closed at 8, that option seemed unlikely.

He told him,

_Don’t push it, Klaus. Look out for yourself, Klaus. Don’t hurt yourself, Klaus. Stop running, Klaus. Go home, Klaus. Stop freaking me the fuck out, Klaus._

Now look what happened. Fantastic.

When it seemed apparent that Klaus wasn’t waking up anytime soon, the longer he lied dead-to-the-world in the cold rain, the more frantic Ben grew. He had barely been eating or sleeping. His immune system was already vulnerable as hell. Who knows what he would come down with out here?

See what he did to Ben? Made him sound like fretting middle-aged helicopter Mom.

Ben found himself with the only thing he could think to do anymore- try to appeal to his other siblings for help. It wasn’t easy when he was,

  1. Invisible
  2. Silently non-existent
  3. Trying to get the attention of people who would barely notice if a damned spaceship crashed through the front of the house.



It wasn’t until Ben conjured up every morcel of his inner strength to crash

one of Klaus’s old water bongs against his bedroom wall that Diego came running in. He looked around suspiciously, clearly not seeing Numbe Six.

“Klaus? Ben?”

“Here!” Ben shouted waving his hands through Diego’s head without any progress. Instead, he tried once again to use all his energy to merely touch a teapot turned over on Klaus’s dresser. Ben nearly passed out himself swiping it off the table, his vision blurring as he watched it fall to Diego’s feet.

This was some second-rate poltergeist shit that Ben was being reduced to right now.

“…Ben?” Diego looked humorously spooked where he stood, tentatively looking around the room for the source of all the mischief.

“YEAH, SMARTASS.” Ben let his frustrations project straight onto his brother who couldn’t hear him anyway, but at least Ben could see the gears… _slowly_ … turning in Diego’s head.

* * *

“Klaus? Klaus, you here?” Diego reluctantly called across an empty park. Was he going insane for embarking on this potentially meaningless hunt based on something simply falling over in his brother’s room?

But let’s look at the facts here- Allie said Klaus dipped out about three and a half hours ago wearing his sneakers. He had been jogging almost every day… or even every day as far as Diego knew. Also, things didn’t fly around Klaus’s room on their own very often. Not at all the weirdest thing that happened in that house, but odd nonetheless. With a ghost brother, you never knew what was an attempt at communication or just something as simple as the house settling.

“This is dumb.” Diego muttered to himself, his legs too sore from their last mission to keep jogging around the vacant park. Besides, what exactly was he expecting to find? Klaus passed out in the middle of the ground in the rain?

“…Shit.”

Apparently so.

“Hey. C’mon, bud.” He voice raised a few octaves with worry coursing through his chest. He was half-expecting Klaus to be dead, quite frankly. He wouldn’t be all too shocked with how he’s been treating himself lately. Diego made a mental note that if Klaus was still breathing, he’d do a better job at keeping an eye on the idiot.

“Mm.” He brother groaned and scrunched up his face against the gentle fall of rain hitting his paled face. Diego felt the knots in his chest unravel as he jumped into action. He gripped Klaus’s shoulder with one hand and gently slapped Klaus with the other.

“Up and at ‘em.”

“It’s Teddy’s turn to patrol.” Klaus waved him off, rolling over and cuddling up to the cold, wet, hard pavement. Diego firmly but carefully turned him back on his back, a confused frown on his face.

“Huh?”

“What?” Klaus finally blinked awake, shakily pushing away the hand slapping at his face.

“What, yourself. As in what the hell are you doing?”

Klaus frowned against the tungsten park lights and squinted at their surroundings, appearing to remember where he was.

“Uh…” He sheepishly shrugged at his brother. “Taking a quick nap. What about you?”

“Get up.” Diego dead-panned, not in the mood for Klaus’s musings.

“But I’m so tired.” Klaus groaned, going back to lie on his bed of cement. Diego rolled his eyes and pulled him back into an unsteady sitting position.

“Hey. Nuh-uh. You made me come all the way out here because you didn’t listen to me in the first place, so you’re gonna listen to me now.”

“Bossy-bossy.”

“Up.”

Klaus pouted like a child but did what Diego said with the help of Number Two’s hand on his arm. Without it, Diego was sure Klaus would collapse faster the Academy during a Vanya-apocalypse.

“What’d I tell you?”

“You tell me a lot. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Chatty cathy. Or bossy Betty, more like it.” Klaus stumbled into step with his rescuer, slinging an arm around Diego’s shoulders.

“I said to not push yourself too far.”

“What is… _“too far”_ , ya know? Seems relative to me.”

“Passing out in the middle of a storm at night due to exhaustion is what I, and everyone else, would call _too far_.”

Klaus frowned and held his hand out to catch rain droplets.

“I’d call this a light drizzle.”

“Shut it.”

“Okay.”

Diego deposited Klaus into the passenger seat, making his way around to the trunk to dig around and see what he had to help his brother’s situation. He came back with an old flannel blanket and wrapped it around Klaus’s shoulders. The fabric practically swallowed Klaus’s increasingly small frame.

“Thanks.” Klaus murmured, his eyes currently closed and brow slightly furrowed as if he was concentrating. Diego knew from the ol’ days of taking care of drunk-teenage Klaus that this was the face he made before vomiting everywhere and then passing out promptly afterwards.

“Don’t.”

“What?”

“Throw up in my car.”

“There’s nothing in there to throw up, don’t worry brotha.” Klaus glanced down and rubbed his stomach dreamily as Diego started the car.

“That’s why we’re going through McDonald’s.”

“Oh. I’m not hungry.” Klaus casually shrugged and snuggled himself into the blanket, leaning to rest his head against the passenger-side window.

“I don’t care. You’re eating.”

“If you don’t want vomit all over Paris, then I wouldn’t.”

“For the last time- You can’t starve yourself to death and I’m not naming my car after Paris Hilton.”

“I _can_ starve myself to death. It’s my humanistic right.”

Diego tapped the breaks so that Klaus’s head slammed into the dashboard. He whined.

“You bitch.” He complained, rubbing his forehead with a thin hand.

“It’s like you’re trying to waste yourself away.”

Diego gritted his teeth and kept his eyes angrily glued to the road as he waited for Klaus’s retort.

There was none.

Diego glanced over. Whatever Number 2 just said, it seemed to have banish any further urge for Klaus to make more snarky remarks. Instead his brother looked down at the floor guilty.

…or he passed out again.

“Klaus?”

“What.”

Diego let out a relieved sigh that he didn’t have to do a 180 to the hospital before he carried on.

“What’s goin’ on with you, huh? Don’t tell me it’s just the drug thing.”

“Quitting cold turkey is hard, dude.”

“So is trying to read your mind. What do you want?” Diego asked, pulling up to the fast food drive-through.

Five minutes later, they sat in D’s car ( _not_ Paris Hilton) outside of the Academy as the rain slammed down violently against the windshield. Diego watched his brother eye his oatmeal tiredly, Klaus stirring through the food slowly without taking a bite.

“Don’t make me feed you.”

“Only if you do the airplane thing.” Klaus took a scoop and “zoomed” it through the air towards Diego’s face. “Here comes the plaaaaane.”

Diego flicked the spoon sent a glob of oatmeal flying until it splatted on Klaus’s window, right next to his head. Klaus froze with wide eyes, slowly turning to examine the damage.

“You’re cleaning that up, bub.” Diego tossed him some crumpled napkins and Klaus begrudgingly wiped up the mess on the window. “While you’re doing that, you can think of where you can start.”

“…start what.”

“Talkin’.”

Klaus sighed and threw the soiled napkins onto Diego’s dashboard, just creating more of a mess. Diego scoffed and gestured towards the napkins, trying to complain but Klaus had already moved on.

“I don’t feel like ‘talkin’.”

“Well _I_ _feel_ like you might’ve given up that luxury when I was forced to come find your corpse-“

“No one forced you to do anything.”

“Not true.” A voice came from the backseat, causing both Klaus and Diego to jump. They whipped around to see that Number 6 had joined them, slightly transparent but there nonetheless.

“Shit. So it was Ben…”

“Yeah. It was Ben. It’s always Ben. Do you know how hard it was to get someone’s attention when I couldn’t so much as snap my own fingers!?” Ben yelled at Klaus, his eyes dark and angry. Diego raised an eyebrow. Hanging out with Klaus and only Klaus for 1.5 decades really brought out the strict parent in the guy.

“Sor-“

“No.”

“But-“

“No.”

“Benny-“

“Don’t. It exhausted me so much I couldn’t remember my own name. Someday I won’t be able to come back and then how will you feel, huh?”

“Well if you can’t come back, it’s most likely ‘cause I’m a goner too.”

Ben looked like he was about to explode.

“Alright, alright. Ben. Go rest. I got this.”

“Guys, I don’t need a babysitter.”

“Shut up.”

“ _Clearly_ , that’s untrue.” Diego and Ben cut in at once. Klaus looked supremely offended.

“Goo.” Diego urged Ben who gave Klaus one last sour look before disappearing… you know, as normal brothers do.

A good pause of silence went by while Numbers 2 and 4 ate their Mickey-D’s. Diego studied Klaus while he ate his oatmeal like it was physically painful. Stripped of the jokes and retorts, Klaus looked exhausted and just plain beaten. Maybe now wasn’t the time to push him.

“I’ll let you off the hook today, alright? Next time we go for a drive though, we’re gonna have a nice long talk. Sound good?”

“Meh.”

“Dude-“

“Okay, okay.”

“It’s a date.” Diego boisterously winked at Klaus pulling an annoyed smile from him and diffusing the rest of the tension in the car. When Diego wasn’t saving his dumbass… or beating it for being stupid… he and Klaus tended to actually have a good time together.

He just didn’t want those good times to become memories once he lost his brother to whatever was eating him from the inside out.

* * *

White porcelain stared back up at Klaus mockingly. His fingers trembled as they grasped uselessly at the back of the toilet in front of him. His head was bowed and his knees hurt from the constant contact with the cool tile floor.

His stomach and chest heaved for the billionth time, and yet, always the same result- nothing came up.

He wasn't surprised. There wasn't much to vomit in the first place, but God, at least it would be a catharsis from these horrid convulsions.

At some point, he finally felt stable enough to sit back on his heels and wrap his shaking arms around himself. Tears stung his eyes, partially from the need to puke and partially from the cruel nightmare that ripped him from sleep.

But it wasn't really a nightmare, was it? Was it a nightmare if it really happened?

Klaus sniffled and moaned, his stomach churning and his head hanging low. He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to contain the nausea. He felt a hand rub his back over his t-shirt. The hand was gentle but firm… there… and cold. Very cold.

Kinda helped in this particular instance.

"You want some water?" Ben asked from where he sat next to Klaus, trying everything in his ghostly power to comfort him. Klaus shuddered and considered having to lean over the toilet again, but the wave of sickness passed.

"It'd only come back up." Klaus mumbled, just barely leaning into Ben's touch.

"What am I doing wrong?" Klaus whispered, his eyes staring forward into the empty bowl but mind far off somewhere else- searching his brain for everything that he's tried- everything that has not worked.

Everything that failed.

This was something that bothered him every day of his existence since coming back to his time, but today was something special.

Today was April 22nd, 2019.

Today was exactly 49 years after Klaus first met Dave.

"This ghost stuff is finicky. No one knows how it really works… even ghosts, dude."

Klaus unraveled his legs beneath him until he was sitting crisscross on the ground. He pushed his palms against his eyes, trying to assuage the pounding headache that was setting in.

"Seems easy for you."

"I knew exactly where to go. I have so many attachments to this house that it was easy to find you and even then it took a while. Remember?"

Klaus huffed and massaged his temples.

"Not nearly this long. I mean- what if… maybe he doesn't even want to- or what if everything we changed in the past- what if Dave and I never met and he doesn't even know who I am-" Klaus started to get more worked up as the words flowed out, the need to vomit quickly returning. He felt Ben's hand grip his shoulder.

"Klaus… Klaus. Freaking yourself out like this isn't helping anyone, okay? Look- you're doing awesome things. Your powers are hella strong… I'm practically a real person because of you. You're doing all you can."

"And it's still not enough."

It didn't help that he and his siblings weren't always on great terms as of late. Klaus was a little cranky due to his cravings and lack of results. His siblings were equally cranky about living in close quarters and trying to navigate cohabitating together again. Not always, but enough to drive Klaus up the wall sometimes.

When he stumbled into the living room later that morning, their loud chatter already irritated him. He quietly stayed to himself, just thanking Allison when she handed him a cup of coffee. He took his place on the love seat near the bar and pulled up his knees to his chest, relishing in the warmth of the coffee in his hands.

"Glad you could join us, princess." Diego teased him about his tardiness to their planned family meeting.

Yes. Luther planned out their gatherings in advance… as if they didn't already just live under the same roof. Klaus didn't need anyone ordering him to wake up at 9AM on a Sunday morning.

"Mm." Klaus raised his coffee in a toast-like fashion.

"Klaus-"

"Mother."

"Dear, you're getting so thin. Much too thin."

"That's what all Moms say." Klaus pointed out, tiredly dismissing Grace who brushed past him with a concerned frown.

"However, your body mass index by my best knowledge is dipping into the 18 category which is-"

"Ugh." Klaus moaned and looked up at the ceiling in frustration. Couldn't they have one normal thing in this house? He appreciated his Mom, but geez, other people didn't have to deal with their parents scanning them with their super-computer genius and getting on their case about their fucking "body mass index number" for Christ's sake.

Klaus assured her he would try eating more before taking a sip of coffee... And then he instantly spat it out.

"Klaus, what the hell?" Five complained, jumping up to his feet to ensure he wasn't a casualty to Klaus's outburst.

"Vanya's." Klaus scrunched up his face and held it out in protest. Vanya frowned and took a sip of her own coffee before smiling shyly.

"Oh, shit. You're right." She sat next to him and they swapped coffee.

"Caramel whore." Klaus nudged her, pulling a modest giggle from Vanya's lips.

"You're the only one here that doesn't like caramel, weirdo."

"Alright, alright. Guys. We have stuff to discuss before Allison heads out." Luther held his arms out to trying to quiet the room from where he stood by the bar.

"Aye, aye, Cap'n." Klaus sarcastically saluted Luther. He didn't seem to like that.

"We need a plan going forward…" And blah, blah, blah.

"The timeline is fragile…" And yada, yada, yada.

Klaus had heard it all before. When they went back and changed some things about their childhood to prevent the apocalypse, the repercussions that Five had been talking about did come to fruition. Random anomalies and discrepancies would make themselves known sometimes in their "new" present time they had created.

A corruption in the government via one of their other mysterious "super-powered constituents" … one of the 43. That had been creating quite a disaster lately.

Somehow the alterations they made created a whole, new organized crime ring set on destroying their family… who knew why or how these things were affected by what they did.

It didn't really matter. They were their messes to clean up, now. But the only thing Klaus admittedly could think of was,

What if Dave and I never happened? Would I even know? Wouldn't I have forgotten about everything in Vietnam? Or would Dave just forget- like we never met? Like I never existed to him.

The idea made Klaus sick to his stomach. He couldn't find any other notable reasons for not being able to conjure Dave yet though.

I'll never leave you completely. And if it's possible to see you ever again- whatever that means- I'll find you. Whatever it takes.

"Klaus." A big hand snapped in front of his face, causing Klaus to frown and reel back. He shot an annoyed glance up at Luther who was towering over him. "C'mon. You of all people could do good from listening."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Klaus realized everyone was looking at him.

What… WHAT?

God, they always did that. All… judging and shit.

"I'm just saying, we can't afford to be holding your hand through all of this because you didn't care enough to put the time in-"

"I'm sorry that my existence is such a nuisance-"

"I didn't say that."

"Guys…" Allison warned from the other side of the room, shaking her head in disapproval.

They both ignored her begs for peace.

"Klaus. I'm just asking nicely if you could please give a shit, just for a little while."

"I do!"

"Alright. Alright." Luther dropped it and sighed deeply before continuing

Klaus huffed and sat back, ignoring Vanya's sympathetic side glance and the feeling of Ben staring at him from behind.

"As I was saying, I think we should wait before we start going out on our own. It's too dangerous to be split."

"I'll be fine." Diego was arguing Luther, wanting to return to his place at the ring because as he gracefully announced, "I love you all and whatever, but you're driving me crazy."

Klaus didn't see why he needed to listen to this part. Everything ended up being about Luther and Diego's differences in the end- like the rest of them didn't have their own goddamn problems.

Klaus mind started drifting as he tuned into the melodies wafting out from Allison's room. She must've left on her radio. He used to love when he'd wake up to that sound in the hallway. It was admittedly comforting to have woken up to it again today.

But now, it was doing other things to his chest. Tightrope by Electric Light Orchestra was playing.

* * *

**"Then- then-" Klaus giggled and snaked his arms inside of Dave's jacket away from the chill of the breeze. "Then you're my bluebird."**

**"You're really hanging onto that blue thing, huh?"**

**"It sets your eyes on fire."**

**"I can dig it."**

**"There's some… Electric Light Orchestra song… About… About bluebird. I can't- Why can't I remember it?"**

**"It's alright, baby. C'mon we-" Dave chuckled. "We've gotta find our hotel. I think I lost it."**

* * *

Bluebird Is Dead.

That was the song that Klaus couldn't think of. It was literally called, Bluebird Is Dead. Like some fucking, mocking warning that Klaus was too stupid to see. The goddamn universe was screaming the future at him, and Klaus didn't listen.

He shot up where he sat before he even realized that he did so. The whole room went silent, but Klaus couldn't focus on that.

He could only hear his laugh- Dave's laugh as they stumbled back to their room that night. The sound of loud streets of Bangkok after the clock struck midnight. The hum of the plane that took them away from their safe little vacation- back to hell. Back to death.

The sound of the bullet striking Dave's chest. He thought it was just the sandbags… how could he think it was only the sandbags?

"What-"

"I need to- um-" Klaus's voice failed him- his throat tightening, his hands shaking. He needed to get out of here before he either 1. Broke down crying in front of all of his siblings who had no idea of who Dave even was or 2. Lost himself to a panic attack or PTSD fit.

"Sit down, dude." Diego tried to stand and put a hand on Klaus's shoulder, but he jumped away. Everyone stared at him from all angles, either confused or on the harsh side, skeptical.

"I can't. I- I have to go." Klaus tried to push past him but Diego kept him in place with hands on his shoulders.

"Hey. What's up?"

"This is exactly what I was talking about."

"Shut it, Luther."

"You're shaking, Klaus." Five observed from where he sat criss-crossed on the carpet, already on his second cup of coffee. Allison had begun to learn to bring at least one backup for Five.

"Yeah. So." Klaus dodged Diego's hold and everyone tried to call for him to come back. Only one voice caught his attention though.

"Once an addict, always an addict."

"You have something to say, Five?" Klaus spun around and spat angrily at his younger-older brother who just cocked an arrogant eyebrow. "That's really all you guys can think of me as, huh?"

"Hey, don't lump us in. It's just Five being a grouchy-morning asshole." Vanya kicked Five from where she sat, earning a sour look from the little shit.

"Everyone, just- Let's finish this. Please? Klaus, if you leave, we can't talk to Ben." Luther reasoned, but it put a sour taste in Klaus's mouth.

"Ah. I see." Klaus rolled his eyes and stormed over the loveseat again, plopping down and crossing his arms. Sometimes he felt like the only reason they still kept him around was because he could allow them to converse with Ben. He was strong enough to do so- his powers were. Ben was visible and audible to others- just working on the tangible thing.

"You have been ornery lately, Klaus. Is… You're not- You're still…"

"Sober? Christ. What? You guys can't stand the thought for one second that you don't have anything else to use me as a scapegoat for? It's a lot easier to judge my problems so you can pretend like your own train wreck lives are picture perfect-"

"Jesus, Klaus. Calm down." Ben finally spoke up, putting a hand on his shoulder from where he stood behind his seat.

* * *

**When they did get back to their room by some miracle, it was surprisingly Klaus leading the show this time. Dave could barely stand at that point, most of his weight over Klaus via the arm draped across Four's shoulders.**

**"Wow. You're like- so strong."**

**"Shh." Klaus chuckled, patting Dave's arm comfortingly as they both stumbled to the bed. He was starting to think it was an impossible dream to actually get there.**

**"I- Um… Oh wow." Dave was still mumbling to himself on Klaus's shoulder until he finally shoved him onto the bed with a grunt.**

* * *

Klaus yanked himself away from Ben's touch on his shoulder as his breath caught in the back of his throat. His world was starting to spin now, his realities mixing into one big clusterfuck. Sounds of Dave- the ghost of him drunkenly giggling. Sounds of his siblings,

"…jumpy…"

"…irritable…"

"…thought we were over this…"

, he heard them chatter about shit they couldn't even begin to understand. Drugs, drugs, drugs… That's all they knew about him. That's all they cared to know about him.

And on top of it all, the dead were starting to buzz. There weren't distinguishable voices, that much he was able to start learning to tame, but the presence was there and was messing with his head.

"Fine." He stood up again, nearly tripping over Five and having half a mind to purposefully kick him in the process (he held back). Klaus dug his fingernails into his palms, anger seething through his body. Part of him knew he was projecting his stress about missing Dave onto his siblings, but also…

What a bunch of assholes.

"If that's really what you want, that sounds good to me." Klaus elbowed the shelf of liquor, knocking a teetering half-whiskey into his hands, catching it just in time.

"Klaus…"

"Hey, now."

"Dude. C'mon."

All kinds of protests broke out in the room. Klaus took the bottle by the neck and held out his arms, dramatically.

"This is what you expect, right?"

"Why does everything have to turn into something about you and your self-destruction?" Diego was up in defensive position, holding his hands out in alert. Klaus had to admit- that one did sting a bit. Diego was usually his only cheerleader, save for Ben.

"You're right. You guys know everything. About me. About everything I apparently bring upon myself." Klaus spun on his heel and started walking out, back turned and whiskey held high in the air like a trophy. "Well excuse me while I go bring this lovely Balvenie Caribbean upon myself as well, so-"

"Drop it. "

And fuck, Klaus did. He didn't mean to. It wasn't a deliberate spite on the request, but there it went, falling from his fingertips amidst his shock until the crash punctured the room and glass flew everywhere.

That wasn't Luther's voice. It wasn't Diego's. Nor Allison's, Vanya's, Five's… Not even Ben's.

The room was silent and still- Klaus was too. His arm slowly lowered to his side, his limbs frozen stiff like ice.

Turn around. Turn around. Turn around.

And yet, he couldn't bring himself to do so. He was too afraid that what he heard, what he thought was waiting behind him- wasn't real. A trick of his mind- something that happened all too often lately.

So, he just stayed, his eyes stinging and his throat knotted until it was painful.

"Who the hell are you?" He heard Diego mutter before time practically froze. Klaus felt a presence right behind him. His spine tingled and goosebumps erupted on his arms like they did when the veil was thin- like when he got close to Ben.

"Always so theatrical." The same voice whispered, strained with a similar tenseness of emotion as Klaus felt. The icy touch of fingertips ran down Klaus's arms and reached the backs of his hands, sliding back up until they rested on his biceps. The rest of the room mattered nothing to Klaus at that moment. He altogether forgot his siblings were even there.

There was only sheer denial and terror- fear that this was all a dream, or a hallucination, or- or-

"Klaus?" The voice questioned gently, clearly a little off-put by Klaus's stagnant behavior. He swallowed the lump in his throat and looked up at the ceiling just in time for hot tears to stain tracks down his face. His chest shook and he bit his lip to keep from breaking down.

This couldn't be real… But it had to. It had to.

THIS IS WHAT YOU'VE BEEN WAITING FOR, DUMBASS! Klaus pleaded himself to just fucking do something- anything.

He wasn't, however, expecting what he did out of pure instinct and shock. Sometimes Klaus's body had a mind completely detached from his own control. He didn't know if it was just an impulse outburst from surprise, if he had some deep-seated anger or frustration buried within him, if it was a weird expression of relief, or simply just needing to make sure he was really there, but…

Klaus turned and slapped Dave square in the face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Désolé  
> Désolé, quand tu mens  
> Désolé  
> C'est une longue file d'attente  
> Désolé  
> Tous mes fantômes sont bleus  
> Désolé, désolé  
> Try to hold on to you
> 
> NEXT UP: Dave and Klaus reunite. Anger, sadness, angst, fluff, cuddles, memories to ensue.


	5. Old Money

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dave and Klaus reunite.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haven't proofread yet so excuse any mistakes. Also getting around to replying to comments from the last chapter because you are all AMAZING and said SO MANY NICE THINGS and I just simply had to update this new chapter for y'all asap.

There was no denying it was him- unless this was some cruel dream, of course, and that _had_ been happening to Klaus lately when he slept. Although, he had to admit- the feeling of his hand connecting with Dave’s face felt pretty damn real.

Klaus’s hands flew up to his own face immediately after, covering his mouth in shock at what he had just done. He didn’t _mean_ to, it kinda just happened.

“ _Klaus…_ ” Dave berated, holding his face where Klaus slapped him and scoffing in disbelief but smiling just a bit in amusement.

Klaus knew that face. He knew that expression like the back of his hand (although he really didn’t know the back of his hand all too well and he always wondered why that was an expression). It was the same expression he always wore every time Klaus did something monumentally stupid but managed to also be “cute” in Dave’s eyes. This phenomenon happened _often_ throughout their ten months together.

He was beginning to think that it would never happen again though. But here they were. And Klaus was just… not accepting it.

His dusky blue eyes.

Check.

His dirty blonde curls.

Check.

His firm, annoyingly perfect-postured stance.

Check.

Pool of blood on his shirt where he was shot straight through the chest.

…Unfortunately, check.

He was there. He was everything Klaus remembered and fantasized about him (save the gory blood display of the worst day of both of their lives). So, why weren’t fireworks going off? Why weren’t his feet moving from where they were cemented to the floor? Why wasn’t he on top of Dave in 0.001 seconds, squeezing the life out of him (if he had any of that left)?

There was an inexplicable sense of rising tension in his chest. He couldn’t explain it. He was sure there was some rampant happiness mixed in there in whatever was molding his current emotions, but it wasn’t an overwhelming sense of bliss like he thought it’d be- when Klaus imagined this moment millions of times before, he thought for sure if would feel better than any other high he’s ever graced himself with. Hell, he thought it’d be like heroin times ten. He _was_ happy. He _was_ excited.

He was scared.

_Why was he scared?_

“Sorry! Sorry I- I don’t know why I did that.”

“It’s-“

“ _But where have you been_?”

It came out a little more accusatory than he intended, his voice ringing off the house walls. Klaus’s eyes never left Dave’s. If they did, would he disappear again?

Dave’s gaze softened and his hand lowered, revealing a slightly pink tinge to his face where Klaus unleashed his instinctual shock onto him.

“Mostly dead.”

Klaus’s face dropped and he glared instead. Dave’s small, amused smile fell from his face and he cleared his throat.

“Sorry.”

He reached forward, but the sudden movement (even as slow and gentle as it was) sent a shockwave through Klaus’s chest and he jumped back, shrinking away.

_What the hell am I doing?_

Dave’s face fell and Klaus felt a pang of guilt in his chest.

_No, no, no… I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to._

And why didn’t he say that out loud? Why did it feel like Dave was an old friend that he reconnected with but the interactions started out awkward until they fell back into step with each other?

This is _Dave._

What was wrong with Klaus?

“Hey…” Dave’s voice dropped down low and cautious, his hand retracting for a second before he reached back out, even slower this time. Klaus felt like a skittish cat unsure of a stranger that was trying to win over his affection.

And yet he jumped back again.

“Sorry. I’m sorry… I-“ Klaus rambled, his hand gripping the bar beside him, his fingernails (or what was left of them) digging into the dark oak. He was feeling a little woozy and confused and overwhelmed and-

A warm touch on his forearm pulled him back from his black hole of wild, unfounded disquiet and Klaus fought the urge to jump backwards, staying frozen in place while Dave’s fingertips grazed their way across Klaus’s arm so gently that it sent goosebumps across his flesh and chills down his spine.

Like light smoke quickly diffusing into the air, Klaus’s anxieties fell away. That didn’t stop his heart from beating louder than an obnoxious bass drum against his chest though. His head was throbbing along with each _thump, thump, thump_ , and he felt his whole frame start to tremble.

 _Goddammit. Not this again._ He berated his body like it was some separate entity with a mind of its own. He swore, it was whenever it did this inexplicable shivering thing- it only ever happened when Dave touched him. He remembered how bad it was the first time they kissed in that club- he couldn’t stop shaking all throughout their whole make-out thing in the parking lot afterward either.

Dave seemed to remember too. An adoring grin spread across his face, but there was a spark of sadness in his eyes that looked deeply into Klaus’s.

“It’s okay.” He spoke softly, and Klaus believed him.

_He’s here. He’s actually here. He’s not going away. This is real. This is real. This is real._

Maybe that’s what Klaus was so damn terrified of- the possibility that this was just another dream that he’d wake up from any second or that his powers would fail him and Dave would sink back into the void of the dead world.

Dave’s touch now spread up across his shoulders until his hands gently cupped either side of Klaus’s neck, his forearms resting gently on Klaus’s chest. Dave himself was much closer now too, his face only inches from Klaus until that gap ceased to exist- Dave gently let his forehead rest against Klaus’s, close enough for Klaus to hear his soft but strained breaths, to feel his hair against his forehead, to smell his familiar scent, to see the individual flecks of color in Dave’s eyes that he swore he already had memorized by heart.

 _A much better analogy than knowing the back of my hand._ Klaus mused to himself right before everything happened at once. Before _he_ even knew what he himself was doing, Klaus blinked and suddenly he broke his weird trance and was instead as he should’ve been in the first place- quite literally on top of Dave who barely held him up as Klaus wrapped his legs around his waist and arms around his neck. Klaus buried his face in the crook of Dave’s neck and felt his soft skin against his lips.

It was like riding a bike- Klaus would never forget this feeling. He’d never forget Dave’s body or that sweetly smoky mint smell or the way goosebumps rose up when Klaus breathed on his shoulder.

Yeah… This was much more like it.

“Either I have super ghost strength or you haven’t been eating... ever.” Dave muttered, wrapped his arms around Klaus’s back to help hold him up as he clamped onto Dave like a parasite.

A very happy parasite.

Dave’s voice was different- strained, but Klaus knew it to be just Dave trying to hold back overwhelming emotions. He sniffled and held Klaus tighter, confirming his observations. 

Klaus ignored Dave’s motherly comment about his weight loss and just tried to focus on not coming apart at the seams because whatever emotions he was holding back a minute ago were _drowning_ him into a puddle of mush. He couldn’t think, he couldn’t speak, he couldn’t stop trembling, and the pain in his throat warned Klaus that if he so much as took another breath, the waterworks would go into full effect.

So, he just held on tightly as Dave rubbed his back, grateful that the “fireworks” he had always envisioned in this moment were finally alight. Even his senses were on fire- every touch, smell, color… Because his emotions had spiked to unparalleled levels, his powers spiked too, enhancing the world around him like he was tripped up on hyper-sensitive psychedelics.

Klaus felt Dave shift a bit so that he could kiss Klaus’s jaw right beneath his ear, sending shivers through his body and causing the shaking to get worse.

 _Safe._ Was the word Klaus kept thinking of like a blinking light in the darkness.

Safe, but maybe not from his urge to fall into a whole-ass emotional melt-down. The bubble in Klaus’s throat was simply unbearable now and as much as he wanted to fight it, he knew he couldn’t keep the tears away for much longer.

…that is until he realized they had a room full of idiots staring with the utmost confusion at the grandiose display in the middle of their living room. Klaus peeked over Dave’s shoulder at all the eyes widened proportionally large to the heads that housed them. Klaus shyly sunk back to bury his own sight into Dave’s shoulder again.

“Dave?” His muffled voice breathed into Dave’s shirt.

He hadn’t addressed that name directly in ages… or a month technically, but that was ages in Dave-less time.

“Mm?” Klaus felt Dave’s voice rumble through his chest.

“Can you do me a favor and just take a few steps forward?”

Klaus could almost hear the confused frown on Dave’s face.

“Yeeeeeeah.”

He walked forward, taking the spider monkey latched onto his body with him.

“Keep going.”

More steps.

“Keep going.”

Further from their audience.

“Great. Now one to the right.”

He heard and felt Dave snicker as he seemed to realize what Klaus was doing because, with one final step to the right, they were finally shrouded by the pillars surrounding the living room and separated from their spectators out in the adjacent hallway.

“So much better.” Klaus sighed, unraveling himself from Dave and dropping to the ground but staying as close as he possibly could, chests still against one another.

_Oh my fuck, this is happening. This is actually happening._

Klaus realized he was just staring when Dave brushed hair from his forehead and smirked back at him.

“Hi, beautiful.”

_Fuuuuck._

“Hi, drop-dead gorgeous.”

Dave laughed and dropped his hand to his side.

“That’s just the first of many puns, huh?” He more stated that asked. Klaus grinned wide too, his eyes traveling down from Dave’s familiarly stunning face to his chest.

“Honey, we gotta do somethin’ about that.” He gently brushed his fingertips against the bloodstain on Dave’s shirt, drawing both of their eyes down to the wound that looked as fresh as fifty years ago.

Dave shrugged.

“Mm. You know more about this than-“

Before he could finish his sentence, the blood was gone. It faded into nothing before their very eyes until it was hard to believe it was ever there in the first place. Dave was left in the same shirt but this time clean and in one piece again, his cargo pants cleaner as well.

“Eh.” Klaus frowned, tilting his head to the side and examining. “Was hoping for street clothes but we can find you some around here if it doesn’t change.”

“…did you just do that?”

“Klaus?” Allison’s voice broke through their side conversation, reminding Number 4 once again of the others in the living room probably floored out of their minds. “Mind telling us what’s-“

“I’ll catch ya later. We’ll be in my room, ‘kay?” He casually chirped back, taking Dave by the hand and pulling him up the grand, oak staircase to the second floor and leaving his siblings behind, scratching their heads.

“But-“

“Thanks!” Klaus mowed over Diego’s objections and kept tugging Dave along behind him, craving a century of privacy with Dave.

* * *

“…I should, like… Say hi, right? I don't want to be rude...” Dave nervously objected from behind Klaus, still following his strides nonetheless.

“They’ll still be here later. Trust me. You can’t get rid of ‘em no matter how hard you try.”

Klaus seemed to have every intention to just breeze through the second floor to get up to where Dave suspected his room was (who knew in a house of this size… holy shit), but Dave let his hand slip from Klaus’s once they reached the lofts full of some kind of memorabilia and giant paintings of kids in uniform.

If finally emerging from 50 years of inexplicable in-and-out limbo without a concept of time or space to reunite with your magical time-traveling boyfriend wasn’t weird enough, this house would certainly do it. Dave already felt like he was in a haze- like waking up after the longest nap in history. This mansion and all the people that were staring at them downstairs just made the experience all the more surreal- Dave could only take things one step at a time. He was trying not to analyze anything too intently and just go with the flow.

He found Klaus. That’s all that mattered, even if he didn’t fully come to terms with it yet. He doubted he would believe it himself for a long while.

He hoped he could even stick around. Dave was guessing the fact that he could touch Klaus was a good sign- the last time he checked, Klaus couldn’t do that at all.

What else had happened since the last time he saw his séance?

“Are those… action figures?” Dave’s smile spread wide while eyeing the glass case of figurines- again, trying to take things in one step at a time. It _did_ feel a little ridiculous to be admiring what seemed to be a museum of the Hargreeves family when there was just _so much_ for Klaus and Dave to catch up on.

All in good time. For now, these little figurines were absolutely, adorably intriguing.

Klaus nervously fidgeted like a teen bringing their first boyfriend to their home for the first time.

Well… That kind of was the exact situation, wasn’t it? Except Klaus was 30, Dave was 80 technically, and this house was nothing like other boyfriends’ places as far as Katz was concerned.

“Ugh. Yeah.” He rolled his eyes in embarrassment, scrunching up his face in distaste at all the stuff around them. 

“I didn’t realize I was dating a celebrity.”

That wasn’t even an exaggeration it seemed- Klaus told Dave a _little_ about the whole superhero kids thing. Dave always figured that just had to have come with publicity, but all the papers, magazines, merchandise, and stuff around them proved that this family was an even bigger deal than he originally thought.

Goddamn, there was an infinite number of layers to Klaus that Dave swore he’d never fully get discover inside-out. That’s part of what made him so fascinating, Dave supposed.

“Here.” Klaus yanked open the door of the glass case and snatched his action figure out, tossing it to Dave who was barely keeping up enough to catch it.

“Klaus…” He wanted to object, feeling a little out of place just barging into this house and toying with the Academy Museum in their hallway. What was the etiquette for this situation?

 _No one has ever_ been _in this situation._

“It’s fine. No one here likes this stuff anyway.” Klaus shrugged.

Dave chuckled and studied the figurine in his hand. Their uniforms were both adorable and _so_ un-Klaus-like… He wondered what it took to get a young Klaus to put on a suit, vest and tie… and the mask too.

This was something straight out of a film.

“I’ll take good care of him.” Dave promised, hoping he could actually use his pants pockets. What was the protocol for this ghost business? He didn’t _feel_ all too different, and the figure did slip into his cargo pockets without falling straight through so that was a good sign, right?

This time, Dave was the one to take Klaus’s hand, leading him around the space to take everything in. He wasn’t quite ready to start mulling over the existential crisis of now being a spirit of his old self. Dave figured distracting himself with this wildly new side of Klaus was the perfect way to avoid that conversation until a later time. Magazines, news articles, t-shirts, framed uniforms, keys to different cities…

This couldn’t be real life.

But it was. It was _Klaus’s_ life.

“That you?” Dave pointed to a young Klaus on the front of a “Daily Pop” magazine where he posed with a girl with curly hair and a smaller Asian boy with a humble smile.

“Yeah.”

Dave beamed, biting his lip. His smile was the same. His hair was tousled similarly, but not quite as wildly. Something about his stance was familiarly playful and slightly cocky but clumsy at the same time.

Dave felt the sweet pain of pure adoration bubble in his chest.

“Shut up.”

“I didn’t say anything!” Dave laughed, wrapping his arms around Klaus’s waist and pulling him in for a kiss on the cheek. It took everything in him to restrain himself to just a quick kiss for now. He didn’t want to push anything too fast, for both of their sakes. “You’re adorable. Nice mask.”

“I fucking hate this.” Klaus smirked, pushing Dave away playfully before pulling him right back close again. They refused to be more than 0.01 millimeters from each other. His touch was a lifeline to Dave right now- who knows, maybe it quite literally was.

Again- the ghost stuff? Much too out there for him to wrap his mind around right now.

The large paintings were next on their trip through the “Umbrella Academy Museum”, Dave’s face falling while studying each portrait next to each other, walking slowly until people started being left out of the pictures until there were only half of them left.

It was kind of sad. Klaus sighed.

“Yeah, that’s where we started to fall apart.”

They examined the last painting with a taller blonde kid, one with dark hair and eyes with a small cut through his eyebrow, and Klaus.

“They actually had to use a reference picture for me because I refused to sit still.” Klaus reminisced.

“Sounds about right. Listen, I think I’d probably do anything to see you in that uniform again-“

“No.” Klaus shut that down lightning fast just as an unaffiliated creak of the floorboards behind them broke their attention. Klaus turned and tugged excitedly at Dave’s hand until he did the same.

“Mom. This is my boyfriend, Dave.” Dave felt a little ridiculous being introduced like this was your average boyfriend-mother meet and greet when there was absolutely nothing normal about it. To prove it, Klaus added, “He’s from 1968 where we met in the Vietnam war. He’s a ghost.”

Dave gave him a look for adding all that other shit but was more distracted by this absolutely flawless, young woman who he was somehow supposed to accept as a mother to a bunch of 30 years olds. Not only that, but all Dave could think of was when Klaus casually blurted out that his Mom was a robot.

This woman _could not_ be a robot. She just couldn’t be.

“Oh! So nice to meet you, dear. I’m Grace.” She reached out and shook Dave’s hand gracefully. There was something slightly, and eerily too… perfect about her.

Dave tried not to show his shock. Could she sense stuff like that? 

“My pleasure, Ma’am.” Dave smiled back, shooting Klaus a side glance. He felt Klaus’s slide up the small of his back comfortingly. He wondered if Klaus could sense Dave’s growing uneasiness and overwhelm.

What was he thinking? Of course, he could.

“Klaus, honey. I put your clothes on your bed.”

“Oh. Thanks.”

“Beef stew for dinner! I better see you down there… with _two_ helpings-”

“Sounds good, Ma.” Klaus quickly interrupted her motherly doting (which Dave found quite hilarious) and anxiously shifted.

Grace gave them both one last, red-lipsticked smile and turned to stiffly walk off to some other part of this enormously, ornate house.

Klaus turned to look at Dave who watched her every move like missing a detail would stop the world from spinning. Klaus brushed his thumb against the back of Dave’s hand, trying to elicit a response.

“ _She’s_ a _robot_?”

“Mhm.”

“… Are you sure? She looks real to me.”

“ _Pretty_ sure, baby. Hasn’t aged a day in years. And she charges on these… cord things, so that’s a pretty good indicator. Don’t think about it too hard.”

He tugged lightly on Dave’s hand and started them towards the stairs to yet another floor.

“…so do lots of people have robot moms in the future? Is that, like-“

“No, no, no. Just here. Actually, this is probably the weirdest fucking house you’ll see anywhere, hands down. Don’t use _any_ of this as reference to normal life in 2019.”

“…okay.”

Unlike the rest of the house, Klaus’s room wasn’t the least bit surprising. It was pretty similar to what Dave would’ve imagined it to be- slightly messy with traces of his reckless abandon but cluttered with odd, intriguing stuff that you could spend all day going through if you had the time. His walls were scratched and drawn into, scribbles fanning out from his bed where Dave could imagine a younger, angsty Klaus rebelling by making his mark on the house.

There were things that seemed cute at first like the stuffed animals in the corner of the room, but upon closer inspection, Dave could see they were either missing heads or had a giant gash ripped into their stomachs.

“They make great hiding places.” Klaus quickly explained, watching Dave take in their surroundings. Dave raised an eyebrow at him. “Drugs.” Klaus further elaborated, but Dave had caught on already. His eyes traced up the walls to a bunch of artwork and posters cluttered over a particularly colorful area. Dave slowly walked over, observing with a small, curious smile.

Bands that Dave had never heard of, although Pink Floyd was one he recognized. The album art was clearly from music that hadn’t been released in Dave’s lifetime though.

He shuddered at the strangeness of it all, quickly distracted by some of the more abstract visuals that Dave soon realized,

“Wait… Did you do these?” He asked, his smile growing slowly as he studied the psychedelic patterns and illustrations of madness that almost seemed to pulse on the page. He knew Klaus used to draw some, but he didn’t know he was a fucking prodigy.

“Yeah, a while ago. Probably was, like, 16.” Klaus humbly shrugged and pulled himself up on his bed to sit crisscrossed while watching Dave explore further.

Lots of teapots.

Lots of empty glass pipes.

Lots of cassette tapes.

Thin t-shirts littered about, loose change, worn down shoes, polaroids, patterned throw pillows and blankets.

“This is very-“

_You._ Was what Dave _was_ going to say if that wasn’t the moment he glanced back and caught Klaus with his knees pulled to his chest, fingers digging into his jeans and tears threatening to spill from his watery orbs.

“Shit.” Dave rushed to his side, wrapping the small Klaus-ball up in his arms and squeezing him tight. He guessed they couldn’t hide from talking about what had happened forever. At some point, they were going to have to talk about how their whole world together was savagely ripped to pieces and thrown in a blender, leaving them with a tragically fucked up situation and a cherry on top.

_Here we go._

* * *

Klaus.

  
Could.

Not.

Stop.

_Sobbing._

It was like the dam he was building up for weeks had broken in a fury of painful catharsis. Every time he tried to force the thoughts in his head to become words in his mouth, it’d turn into stuttering breaths instead and his chest would cave in all over again.

The more he cried, the tighter Dave held him. Despite his unexplained invasion of heart-wrenching sadness, it felt like Klaus finally made it home. The whole time he was in Vietnam when he thought of home, it was always imagining walking back through the Academy doors. Of course, he loved his Umbrella Academy family (even though they could be a bunch of asshole clowns), but he was beginning to realize this giant structure of wood, stone, and bad memories were never really his home.

Right here was. Dave’s arms made him feel safer than this stupid mansion did.

This all just made Klaus cry harder.

“Baby…” Dave finally muttered sadly into his hair, nuzzling his hairline. Klaus sniffed and wiped tears away with the palms of his hands while Dave released his solid grip around him. He let Klaus compose himself a bit, but Dave’s eyes were very clearly drilling holes into him. Klaus had no doubt that he was probably freaking Dave out. He wanted to comfort him in saying that he really was happy about all of this, there was just a lot buried that was coming to the surface, but if Klaus opened his mouth to speak, no doubt he’d cave in all over again.

Instead, once his breathing returned to some kind of normal, Klaus looked up and went to reach forward. This time, it was _Dave_ who jumped back, fear flashing through his eyes. Instantly, he reached back to take Klaus’s hand, a sheepish smile on his face.

“Just didn’t want to get slapped again.” He admitted, pulling a giggle from Klaus. He sniffled and rubbed his eyes again.

“Sorry.” He finally muttered something without bursting into tears again. He gave Dave a guilty half-grin. “You just surprised me.”

“I guess I forgot what a drama queen you are.” Dave brushed a few locks of hair from Klaus’s forehead, studying him up and down. “You okay?”

“You show up with a bullet in your chest and you’re asking if _I’m_ okay?”

“Well, yeah. It’s too late for me.”

Klaus’s face dropped and he gave Dave a deadpanned look while Dave amused himself with his dark humor. Dave shrugged as if to say, _hey it’s true_.

“I hate you.” Klaus shook his head and rolled his eyes that currently stung against the air.

“I love you.” Dave countered, his eyes all big and puppy-dog-like.

Klaus _melted_.

“I love you too.” He whispered, mostly because he was scared of losing it all over again. They sat like that admiring each other from about a foot away until Dave broke.

“A’ight. C’mon.” He gently urged as he eased himself onto his side, stretched out across the bed. Klaus took a deep breath, knowing that there wasn’t enough time in the world to talk about what they needed to talk about. Nevertheless, he followed Dave’s lead and laid down facing his gorgeous ghostie, letting Dave pull him in close enough to entwine their legs and arms together. Their faces were only a couple inches apart- perfectly distanced to just study on another, remembering every feature they had memorized.

After a while more of happy silence- Klaus running his fingertip down the bridge of Dave’s nose and across his cheekbone and Dave gently running his thumb along the curve of Klaus’s lips, stuff started to finally spill out.

Klaus, still unable to trust that Dave wouldn’t disappear again at any moment, subconsciously tried to take in every single detail of these moments and commit it to memory like a script.

“Why now?” Klaus started off, blurting the words out before he even knew he was thinking it. “How’d you find me?”

Dave: “Your note… at Lizzie’s.”

Klaus: “…So you’ve- you’ve been there?”

He shifted nervously on top of the bed, drumming his fingertips against Dave’s chest. Just knowing that Lizzie lived a whole life without Dave there to see it and that _Dave himself_ had to live with that…

Dave: “That’s kinda the only place I’ve been.”

Klaus: “What do you mean?”

Dave struggled with finding a way to describe it adequately, but he started to fill Klaus in with everything he could remember from February 1968 to now… which, wasn’t much.

Dave: “It’s like drifting in and out despite what you may want- sometimes I could be there with her. Sometimes I could take a walk around the town. Sometimes I could remember what I did or what Lizzie did last week… and sometimes not. I just was floating from moment to moment really, and when I wasn’t present… I don’t know. I don’t know where I went. I have absolutely no memory of it.”

Klaus didn’t know what to say. He never spoke to someone who had been through such a long time of being a ghost. The only person who came close was Ben who had the closest thing to a human life as any other ghost would ever achieve, just from living through Klaus from day to day. Without an anchor to reality, Klaus guessed spirits just kinda did exactly what Dave said- drifted in and out without much purpose.

At least it didn’t feel like an eternity of waiting for Dave, but also,

Klaus: “That’s… I don’t know. Kind of scary. Not having control.”

Dave sadly smiled and kissed Klaus’s forehead before looking up, searching for words.

Dave: “It was at first, yeah. After a while, I just kind of went with the flow and enjoyed the moments I could be there to watch Liz.”

Klaus: “She’s fucking fabulous.”

Dave: “I’m glad you were able to meet her. I _told_ you, you had nothing to be nervous about.”

Klaus laughed at the fact that Dave was carrying on a conversation they had fifty years ago, but then he remembered that said conversation was one of the last things they talked about on that fateful day, and…

Klaus: “Fuck…”

Number Four turned to bury his head in his pillow, his throat closing and restricting his air while pushing tears. Dave ran his fingers through Klaus’s hair while he composed himself… again. Dave was patient as always, skimming circles over Klaus’s back and recounting all his favorite moments with Lizzie as she grew up alongside his ghost, unknowingly.

“She had a small wedding but it was very her. I liked the guy, actually. Wasn’t sure at first, but I did. Liz did a whole thing for me- this whole homage. It was nice. Especially since my other siblings weren’t invited.”

He talked about seeing his first niece for the first time when Lizzie brought her home. He talked about how his sister would get into mischief with her protesting, but for as much as he was worried, he was always proud.

Just the consistent sound of Dave’s voice and his words were enough to soothe Klaus back to being present again until he had turned back towards Dave to watch him lovingly boast about his sister. Dave didn’t remember _too_ much though, and soon the memories ran out and it was Klaus’s turn to get his shit together and catch Dave up.

With everything that had transpired, it took a hot second… over an hour, actually. It helped that every ten minutes or so, he and Dave would shift positions from simply lying side by side to something ridiculous like Klaus venus-fly-trapping Dave’s torso as he sat on the ground up against the bed.

Describing exactly what Klaus did after Sarge told him to run seconds following Dave’s death was spent with Klaus collapsed over Dave’s chest while Katz laid on his back, massaging Klaus’s back and shoulders.

Talking about what it was like returning to the present was spent with Klaus sheltered inside of Dave’s arms and legs as he sat up against the wall with Klaus in between his self-made refuge.

Recounting his drunken trip to VFW with Diego and the many instances of PTSD was some tough stuff to spit out, so it made it easier that Dave was lying on his stomach for that one, Klaus stretched out over Dave’s back and his arms around his neck- extremely close but he didn’t have to look him in the eyes and see that piercing sympathy that might send Klaus over the edge in tears again.

Going through the aches and pains of reaching sobriety and maintaining it was something Klaus could barely finish speaking of before Dave quickly swept him up and squeezed the fucking life-force from Klaus’s more-brittle-than-usual body.

“Aaaahahh…” Klaus shrieked and giggled as his feet kicked out into the hair helplessly. Dave had his arms wrapped around Klaus’s torso like loving boa constrictors while his face pushed into Klaus’s shirt, tickling him with his warm breath as his muffled voice swooned,

“ _I’M SO FUCKING PROUD OF YOU.”_

Klaus didn’t realize how much he needed to hear those words. While Ben was fantastic and the rest of his family would say a nice thing or two about Klaus’s progress on a good day, often Klaus had to be his own cheerleader and he was _not_ good at playing that part for himself.

It felt damn good to have someone be so genuinely excited for him- to be so genuinely filled with pride.

Dave finally dropped him back onto his bed with one fell swoop, falling over him but catching himself with his right arm besides Klaus’s head before Dave completely collapsed over him. His face was left inches from Klaus’s, his smile beaming.

“I _knew_ you seemed different.”

Klaus scrunched up his face and wrapped his arms loosely around Dave’s neck above him, toying with the hair at the nape of Dave’s neck.

This was the first instance since they had come back together that things were starting to feel more like their light-hearted normal.

“I’m gonna be _booooring_ now.”

“Baby, there’s nothing in this world that could make you boring.”

Klaus grinned up at this beautiful god above him and thought,

_Have I really not kissed this guy yet?_

The moment was passed right up with Dave’s next words though.

“So, kinda on that subject…” Dave’s brilliant thrill faded and he slid back to sit on the bed next to Klaus rather than on top of him. By the inflection of his voice, Klaus knew Dave was about to bring something sensitive up. He had a feeling that he knew what it was, too.

“What’s with this?” Dave asked as Klaus slowly sat up on the edge of the bed too. Dave reached forwards and gently brushed his fingertips underneath Klaus’s eyes and across his cheekbone. He was tracing the dark circles under his eyes, Four just knew it.

“What?” Klaus played dumb until he knew that he _had_ to launch into this conversation.

“And this.” Dave carried on instead of answering, lifting Klaus’s arm by his wrist. His fingers easily closed completely around Klaus’s bones. He turned over his arm to study his forearm and the remains of his chewed fingernails. Not to mention the cuts and bruises that Klaus received from his pass-out in the park.

Klaus snatched his arm back.

“Not everyone can have ghostly prowess.” He retorted, crossing his arms defensively over his chest and turning away from Dave.

“You know that’s not what I mean.”

_Knock. Knock. Knock… Knock. Knock……………. Knock._

Klaus’s eyes widened at the harsh but more-than-welcome interruption to their impending conversation about Klaus’s lack of self-care. He knew that specific knock and was grateful for its timing.

Klaus shot Dave a mischievous glance before he quickly called,

“Come in, Benji!”

Dave narrowed his eyes at Klaus and shook his head, knowing full-well that Klaus was only welcoming this disruption because it voided their conversation for the time-being.

“We’re not done talking about this.”

Klaus shrugged and prepared himself for something he thought of often but started to consider may never happen- his ghost boyfriend meeting his ghost brother.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Where have you been?  
> Where did you go?  
> Those summer nights seem long ago
> 
> But if you send for me, you know I'll come  
> And if you call for me, you know I'll run  
> I'll run to you, I'll run to you  
> I'll come to you, I'll come to you
> 
> NEXT UP: Ben officially meets Dave but brings unwelcome news of an awaiting mission- the thing is that Dave can't come along due to Klaus's flighty, unstable powers and the mission takes place in a time and place that Klaus is all too familiar with: Vietnam, 1968.


	6. Your Possible Pasts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Klaus has to leave Dave to go on a family mission. The anomaly- Klaus himself in Vietnam, 1968. The commission's target- Dave. While there, the siblings have a hard time understanding this new Klaus that they've never seen before and Klaus has to make some difficult decisions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Same deal- excuse any typos for now. Will fix later! Thanks for your patience as always <3

“You’re not _that_ short!” Dave broke the silence that fell between him and Ben when they first laid eyes on each other. As soon as Number 6 walked in, they both froze and kind of just… stared. The funniest part was that they sported the same type of smile on their face- like they were curiously studying the eighth world wonder.

However, he did _not_ expect Dave to savagely out Klaus right here in front of his brother who he just met. Ben scoffed and whipped two appalled eyeballs at Klaus, slapping him in the chest with the back of his hand.

“Okay, _everyone’s_ short to me.” Klaus defended, shrinking away from Ben’s playful wrath. Dave laughed and soon Ben was too. The only person who wasn’t laughing was Klaus who shot Dave an unamused look for jumping right in to tease both of them at once. Dave just reached out and gave Klaus’s hand a small squeeze, smiling mischievously. Ben moved on.

“I hate to be cliché, but damn… I’ve heard-“

“- _so much_ about you.” Dave agreed, finishing for him and nodding understandingly. Ben’s face lit up and soon it was like Klaus wasn’t even there in the room.

“Holy shit, you’re _all_ he talks about.”

“Trust me, it was always ‘ _Ben would think this. Ben would say this. Ben wouldn’t like this_.’”

“Thank God you’re here. I can’t keep up lately.”

“Hey…” Klaus cut in, shooting a sour look at Ben who was clearly talking about him.

“You think _you_ can’t keep up? Imagine letting him loose in a warzone.”

“Shit, yeah… Don’t know much about that, but I _do_ know a little bit about constantly running half-naked from angry drug lords in the wee hours of the morn-“

“ _ALRIGHT,_ alright…” Klaus cut in, waving his arms in between Dave and Ben’s eyesight, breaking their focus and throwing a wrench in the “let’s exchange embarrassing Klaus stories” conversation.

Dave gave Klaus a lopsided pout and reached out to pull him into a hug. He let himself be pulled into Dave’s chest and be encircled in his arms, but he still didn’t act happy about it.

“This is good, though!” Dave muttered into Klaus’s hair through a quick kiss on his head. He let Klaus go, and despite the warm buzz that erupted through Klaus’s chest at the gesture, he still shrunk back away and crossed his arms defensively.

“I’m not so sure anymore.” He said, speculatively glancing between Ben and Dave who were hitting it off faster than he thought. However, if he had to choose between the two of them taking to each other through unfortunate Klaus-antics versus not getting along, he would certainly choose the former.

No matter. They were already going at it again, luckily, this time about ghost stuff rather than Klaus himself.

“It takes a while. Trust me. Klaus and I are still finding new things out every day with the whole sober thing. I can show you some stuff that might be helpful sometime if you want.” Ben was offering regarding spirit-stuff.

“That’d be stellar.”

“Okay, okay. Did you come in here to steal my boyfriend, or-“

“Oh, yeah.” Ben seemed to recall his reason for visiting. “Actually…”

Klaus’s whole body slumped at the sound of what Ben said next.

_A mission? NOW?_

Granted, they had been kind of go-go-go in terms of “The Umbrella Academy Timeline Clean-Up” job lately so Klaus should’ve seen this coming sooner or later, but was it too much to ask for just one full day with his long-lost ghost boyfriend that he thought he may never see again?

The responsible thing to do, of course, would be to hold in quiet disappointment while stepping up to the plate for his family anyway.

Good thing Klaus wasn’t responsible in any way shape or form.

“Eeeeehhhhh, I’m good.”

“Dude.” Ben dead-panned.

“What? You guys don’t even _use_ me! Honestly, I slow y’all down way more than I help. I’m doing you a favor. You’re welcome.”

“That’s not true.”

“You know it is.”

“Klaus-“

“And you’ve got your ghostly prowess all in order. You don’t need me either!”

“Klaus! Will you let me finish?”

The two of them argued back and forth before Klaus felt a hand gently cup his bicep, turning his attention back to Dave to Ben’s slight irritation.

“Honey, you can’t push your family back for me.”

“Pfft.”

“Hey. I’m trying to make a good first impression here.”

Klaus sighed and rolled his eyes, wondering if this was going to become an annoying pattern- Ben and Dave teaming up to be his unwelcome conscience and outnumbering him until he was forced to do all this ‘upstanding citizen’ bullshit that he didn’t want to do.

“Okay. Theeeeen, he can come!” He turned to Ben with excited approval, but Six just looked nervously from Klaus to Dave and back. He shifted uncomfortably.

“…I wouldn’t.”

“Then, no.”

Just the fact that his brother was suggesting splitting Klaus and Dave up after reuniting for the first time in (technically) 50-years, _especially_ when he knew how hard Klaus was coping, pissed him off further and further each second.

Ben seemed to catch signs of this because he reached forward and grabbed Klaus’s wrist.

“Dave. Do you mind if I pull him outside for a bit?”

Klaus looked back at Dave with pleading eyes that begged, “save me”, but Dave gave him an apologetic shrug back.

“Uh. Sure, no problem.” He told Ben politely, letting him drag Klaus away.

“Traitor.” Klaus dramatically cracked at Dave as he was half-dragged into the hallway.

Even that distance was enough to drive an anxious stake through Klaus’s heart. He suddenly couldn’t breathe as well or hold himself as confidently, all because he was scared _shitless_ that when he walked back into that room, Dave would be gone for any multitude of reasons.

Klaus went to direct all of that anxiety into pure anger towards Ben, but his brother started to spit everything out before he could.

“Okay, _first-_ Think about what that would mean for you… taking not one, but _two_ ghosts through a time jump and back. You have to channel your power through me if I need to use mine, so where does that leave Dave? Totally vulnerable as a newly attached ghost. You could lose him, Klaus. Like, _actually_ lose him… in a whole different time. Get me?”

Klaus opened his mouth to answer before he really even had time to process this logic, but Ben mowed right over his response. The strange part was how low Ben’s voice dropped, like he was about to deliver some guilty secret.

“And it’s not just that- It’s… It’s you, Klaus. The disturbance… or anomaly or whatever… it’s you.”

“Gee, thanks.”

“Dude, shut it and listen.”

Klaus shifted impatiently, trying to glance through the crack of his bedroom doorway, wanting desperately to catch a glimpse of Dave to ease his mind.

Ben gently slapped at his face to pull him back.

“Ow.”

But that’s when Ben finally, truly did grasp all of Klaus’s focus… because that’s when Ben put it _blatant and clearly_ ; they were going back to the Vietnam war. They were going back to Long Binh. They were going back to Klaus and Dave circa shit hitting the fan.

“This is dangerous shit… or at least, Five says so. If you see yourself or Dave sees himself-“

“Well, then doesn’t it make more sense for me _not_ to go?”

“We don’t know shit about how to manage in the fucking Vietnam War! Klaus… We need you. Dave will still be here when you get back- much more safe-and-sound than if we dragged him along.”

And so, the world was an unfair son of a bitch once again and Klaus had to go back in there and explain to his beautiful ghostie that he had to go somewhere Dave couldn’t follow which also happened to be the very place the entirety of their relationship was both built and destroyed within.

_Not destroyed._ Klaus happily but cautiously reminded himself. _Not anymore._

When Klaus came back into the room and saw Dave, his heart dropped and fluttered all over again. Those thirty seconds spent away from him was like being sent to a mini Hell for a terrible vacation. Seeing him again was like another jolt of pure ecstasy.

And then, Dave turned and lifted what he was holding in his hand.

“Did you steal my jacket?”

Klaus raised his eyebrows.

“Uhhhhh, yes. Yes, I definitely might’ve done that.”

“Asshole.” Dave smirked, reaching forward to drape it over Klaus’s shoulders, admiring the way it looked on him.

It was hard to break the news when Dave was holding both of Klaus’s hands so gently, staring into his eyes with big puppy-dog blue ones, but he seemed to understand the situation even if the whole “time-jumping-to-protect-the-new-timeline-from-a-secret-time-commission” thing seemed to make his head spin.

“Just… Be careful.” Dave gave him a sad, lopsided smile and brushed his thumb along Klaus’s cheekbone.

“Well, hey. If I die, that might be even-“

“Don’t even say that.” Dave cut over Klaus. Four _was_ mostly joking, but there was some truth in his dark thought- if he died at any point, it’s not like it would be _too_ tragic. He’d be on the same playing field with Dave once again after all… at least, he thought. He didn’t actually know enough about the afterlife to know for sure that he’d be able to see Dave ever again.

So, better to be safe. Plus, he did still have a family that seemed to care about Klaus every once and a while.

“I’ll be okay. It’s _you_ I’m worried about. Don’t go anywhere, okay?” Klaus begged, swinging Dave’s hands back and forth, clasped in his own. Dave looked like he was going to deliver some kind of comforting promise, but Klaus perked up with an idea first. “Wait! In fact… C’mere.”

Klaus excitedly dragged Dave down the hallway a short distance to Luther’s room. The big, lovable oaf was pulling on his black “Umbrella Academy” uniform jacket, something that Mom put together for all of them when they started having to do “superhero-y” things again. It was a lot more understated than the costumes they had as kids which Klaus appreciated but he still loathed the idea of dressing in the same thing as his siblings. They looked like a disturbing boyband in Klaus’s opinion. Still, Luther insisted they all wiggle into those black pants, shirt, and jacket.

“Knock, knock.” Klaus chirped happily, rapping on Luther’s doorframe where his door was slightly ajar. Luther jumped a bit, turning to see Klaus with a curious raise of his eyebrow.

“Klaus,” He exclaimed, surprised. “Uh- What’s up. Are you ready?”

“In a sec.” Klaus pushed open the door to reveal Dave who was staggered slightly behind him, their hands still locked behind Klaus’s back. Luther’s eyes traveled up to Dave, his head cocked curiously. “Luther, this is Dave.”

Weird words, those were. Klaus never thought he’d get to say them.

“Oh. Uh…” Luther stumbled forward, slightly tripping over some clothes on the floor but regaining his awkward stupor. “Hi. Nice to meet you.”

Luther reached out hesitantly as if he wasn’t sure a hand-shake would even work which was understandable seeing as everyone probably should’ve guessed by now that Dave was a ghost. How else would he have just appeared in their living room?

Dave let go of Klaus’s hand and reached forward, making contact and shaking Luther’s hand. Even though Klaus’s emotions were running rampant currently and that meant some strong dead-world connections, he still got nervous every time Dave went to touch something. He thought that it might just break his own heart if he ever dropped the ball with the powers thing and Dave would have to be condemned to the usual ghost-physics.

Luther was staring at Dave like he was an equation he was trying to solve, but Klaus didn’t have time to go through with any more explanations or introductions.

“Can Dave stay here and look through your records while we’re gone?” 

Luther blinked dumbly at Klaus and then Dave and then Klaus again.

“Uh- I- Yeah, yeah. Of course.”

Luther seemed extremely out of his element until that moment. He broke his confused trance and led Dave to his shelf chock-full of tattered record cases. Klaus made sure he glanced at Dave’s expression at that moment, and it was as he hoped- like a little boy on Christmas morning… or maybe a Jewish kid during Hanukah in his case.

“Wow.” Dave muttered, making himself at home and dropping to his knees next to Luther who crouched and fingered through some of the albums. “This is a hell of a collection.”

“Thanks.” Luther nodded proudly. Klaus stood and watched the two of them, a grossly cheesy smile spreading across his face. He knew Dave would get along with his family- Dave got along with pretty much everyone. However, he didn’t think they’d click so soon and so effortlessly. This was something he never thought he deserved to have; a normal moment like introducing your boyfriend to your siblings and feeling a big sigh of relief when they got along.

Sure, he might be a ghost, but so what, right?

“What kind of stuff do you like?” Luther asked. Dave glanced back at Klaus with an uncomfortable look on his face.

“Uh… I guess late 60s?”

Klaus smirked. It wasn’t like Dave knew about anything past the 60s anyway.

“Well, they’re organized by year so that’d be over here…” Luther reached over and pulled out some records, handing them to Dave who’s face lit up.

“This is my favorite Hollies album.”

“Oh, it’s by _far_ the best.” 

“People always underestimate it.”

“I know. It’s bullshit.”

Klaus could watch Dave bond with his family all day. It was weirdly enjoyable for him, the way it sent butterflies in a frenzy in his stomach and chest.

God, he was so disgustingly love-sick. He loved it.

“Okay, well… If you’re good, I have to go throw my abomination of an outfit on…”

Luther shot Klaus an unamused look and stood to prepare his record for Dave. Klaus gave Dave’s hair one last ruffle like he was dropping a kid off at kindergarten, and then he trotted back to his room to hurriedly get ready for quite literally going off to war… again.

He got dressed as quickly as he possibly could, still absolutely terrified by the idea of being away from Dave for more than one second. It didn’t take Klaus long, luckily. He never wore his uniform “right” which pissed Luther off to no end. Instead, Klaus usually pulled on his pants (which he ripped on purpose), picked out a graphic tee instead of the stupid under-armor-like uniform shirt, and then threw on the black bomber-style jacket, unzipped.

They should be glad he conformed at all.

Then, Klaus grabbed one of his necklaces off of his dresser and bounded back to Luther’s room, admittedly half-expecting Dave to have disappeared like he was never there at all.

But there he was, shuffling through a mountain of records like a kid playing in the sandbox. Klaus smiled upon seeing him again, taking a moment to relish in the swell of happiness in his chest before he approached Dave from behind and slid his arms over his shoulders and around his neck.

“Mm,” Dave grunted happily, leaning his head back against Klaus’s shoulder. Klaus shifted so he could drape the long necklace in his hand around Dave’s neck, letting the metal pendant fall against Dave’s sternum. “What’s this?”

“It’ll help you stay corporal. Ben and I figured that out. He’s always wearing something of mine. It strengthens the… connection, or… whatever. Ya know?”

“Okay.” Dave accepted, tilting his head back to smile at Klaus with bright eyes. Klaus smiled back and kissed his forehead. “Having fun?” 

“I don’t even know where to start.”

“Save some for when I get back. I have a lot I want to show you.”

“Yes, sir.” Dave sat forward again and Klaus unraveled his arms from around him.

“KLAUS!” Five’s pre-pubescent, constantly angry voice yelled from downstairs. Klaus sighed.

“Yeah, yeah…” He called back. He and Dave stood and Dave immediately wrapped him in his arms.

“Come back. Okay?”

Klaus could hear the concerned shake of Dave’s voice. He didn’t blame him. He wouldn’t be happy with the notion of Dave shoving off to do some kind of dangerous phenomenon he didn’t understand back in a time where they both experienced excruciating losses and danger at every turn.

“I will.” Klaus muttered into Dave’s chest. “I’ll explain more about what’s happening when I get back, okay?”

“Okay.”

They unraveled from one another, but Dave still kept his arms locked around Klaus’s waist. They smiled into each other’s eyes, but there was a tinge of worried sadness there.

“I love you.” Klaus whispered, realizing that there was a small chance that this could be the last time they said it to each other.

Suddenly, he was terrified. Absolutely terrified.

“I love you too. It’ll be okay. I’m right here… Not going anywhere.” Dave sensed Klaus’s nervousness immediately. “Just focus on taking care of yourself.”

“Yeah…” Klaus murmured, still not so comforted. He wondered how long it’d take for him to finally believe Dave was back and here to stay. He _was_ here to stay, right? Like… forever? Was that a conversation they had to have?

All of his thoughts melted when Dave gently tugged him forward and laid his forehead against Klaus’s, their bodies flush up against one another. For further emphasis, Dave hooked his fingers into the belt loops of Klaus’s pants and pulled him even closer, making Klaus stumble against him.

“And I think you should just keep this on.” Dave ran his eyes down Klaus’s body, admiring his outfit and making Klaus roll his eyes. “What? I like it.” Dave defended, slipping his hands into Klaus’s back pockets and pulling him in tighter. Klaus sighed happily and nuzzled his nose against Dave’s.

“You’re not making it easy to leave.”

“Well, I have to make sure you hurry back.”

“We’re so going to do some groundbreaking research into ghost sex.”

“It’s our civic duty to do so.” Dave agreed with a big smile.

Klaus chuckled and sighed in Dave’s arms, letting a moment of silence fall between them. They gazed into each other’s eyes like they were trying to memorize every fleck of color they found there until Dave ran his hand up Klaus’s back to his neck and pulled him forward.

Klaus didn’t think they could ever beat the first kiss they had in that bar in Saigon. There was just so much anticipation up until that moment and it was so perfectly timed and Klaus was so perfectly smooth and everything was just… perfect.

But this kiss gave _that_ kiss a run for its money. It was like being wrapped in a blanket straight from the dryer. It was like the first breath of air after nearly drowning. It was like being hit with a smell or a touch that transported you back to one of your favorite memories that lit a fire of familiarity in your stomach.

It just fit.

“KLAUS!” Luther yelled this time. Klaus broke his lips away from Dave’s and groaned.

“Go on, Super-Klaus. Go save the world.”

“More like go appease the circus. Okay. I love you. Have fun.”

“I will.” Dave gave Klaus’s hand one last squeeze before they tore away the last bit of contact. They watched each other the whole way that Klaus trudged towards the door until he reluctantly moved out into the hallway and out of sight.

Klaus felt the butterflies within him fade.

This mission better not fuck anything up.

* * *

The initial entrance into Vietnam was definitely strange, but not at all in the way Klaus thought it’d be. He thought for sure that his surroundings would freak him the fuck out- if he already had PTSD from his damn ceiling fan, imagine what real choppers and guns would do. It was actually the opposite though. Instead of feeling like a piece to a puzzle that didn’t fit anymore, Klaus blended right back in beautifully… too beautifully. He was _too_ comfortable being back. It wasn’t something he expected at all and it scared him. He didn’t want to feel like he belonged here. He hated here. Ever since he left though, there was a small divot in his chest that was aching to be filled again. He just had no idea that it was longing to be back to the environment he begrudgingly came to know.

“Everyone stay close.” Luther was the first to let go of the circle of grasped hands following Five’s successful jump. He straightened his back and surveyed the area, tilting his head towards the sound of gunfire nearby.

“So… what are we looking for again? And _how_ does this have to do with Klaus?” Diego asked straight to Five while tightening his sheathe of knives around his torso gruffly. Klaus realized then that the siblings didn’t have the full story- not even close. Klaus glanced at Five with a confused frown. His itty-bitty brother stared back at him with those furrowed eyebrows that told Klaus that he knew much more than he was letting on.

“I don’t have much time to explain.” Five said. “This morning, I found a discrepancy jumped to a different timeline; a timeline where Klaus singlehandedly destroyed our chances at stopping the apocalypse.

Everyone froze and suddenly there were six-too-many pairs of eyes on Klaus who held his hands up defensively.

“Don’t look at me! That’s another Klaus!”

“How?” Luther elected to move on from the shock that this was a thing that could’ve happened and might still if they didn’t stop the Commission from changing the past.

“Apparently Klaus went on a little trip that none of us know about.” Five cocked an eyebrow at Number Four. Klaus realized that Five must’ve visited this era earlier and seen what had happened- he knew. He knew what Klaus went through. He knew about Dave, didn’t he?

It’s amazing what Five could accomplish in a mere morning by himself.

Again, all eyes on Klaus. He shrunk back and subconsciously gripped Dave’s dog tags in his hand. After over a month of keeping these 10 hellish but beautiful months from his siblings, he wasn’t expecting to be forced to reveal all right this second. The idea of having to open up about it was scarier than he thought.

“ _What? Here?_ ” Vanya looked around at the palm trees that faded into thick, smoky skies.

“Klaus?” Allie prodded, waiting for a further explanation. Five’s voice cut back in again though, this time from a few yards away. He was already on the move.

“No time to explain. Keep up.”

The rest of them fell into step behind Five, lurking through the thick forest towards the sound of commotion up ahead. It wasn’t long before they could even see the harsh flashes of gunfire through the trees, even in the sunlight.

“So… How exactly did I fuck everything up this time?” Klaus urged Five as he picked up his own speed to match the lil’ assassins. Five shot Klaus a side glance but mostly kept his attention laser-focused on their surroundings as if he was looking for someone specific- a Commission slave, most likely.

“You weren’t there.” Five simply answered, grim and mysterious as ever. Klaus rolled his eyes.

“Elaborate.”

Five sighed.

“We’re about halfway through your ten-months here, right?”

“Right.”

“You didn’t have the briefcase right now… right?”

Klaus thought about that. He didn’t come across his briefcase again for another couple of months.

“…right.”

“So, if you’re soldier boy was to die right now, what do you think would happen?”

Klaus swallowed thickly. Did he mean Dave? He had to mean Dave. How long was Five snooping around here this morning? How much did he know about what Klaus went through? What did he mean by Dave dying ‘right now’, months earlier than he originally did?

“Uh… I don’t know…”

“Well, I do. The Commission is trying to create a new timeline with David was killed today… where he was killed earlier.”

“Why?”

“Because- you gave up and died shortly after and couldn’t be there for when the apocalypse stuff was happening in the future. You just… never came back from Vietnam.”

Klaus felt his mind stop, but luckily, his body kept on moving. He had a feeling that he was accustomed to that from being in Vietnam- even when his mind was distracted, he just had to keep on marching.

“So… the world ended because you guys _needed_ me?” Klaus started to smile despite the grim news he just heard about the fact that there were people trying to kill both him and Dave right now.

Five rolled his eyes at the fact that _that’s_ what Klaus got out of this, but Klaus didn’t care. He loved this. Finally, some validation that no one ever wanted to give him. He guessed he did do _some_ stuff to help out with the apocalypse business. He saved Diego (which, yes, was mostly Ben but Ben couldn’t do so without Klaus, so…), he figured out where Vanya was headed to end it all, and he came in to clutch at the end there with funneling Ben’s power through himself to save all their asses.

So, yeah. Even if there were Commission Assassins here in Vietnam currently trying to take out Dave and therefore Klaus, it felt damn good to actually be essentially needed for once.

“Are we just simply taking the assassins out?” Ben asked from behind them, his eyes wandering much like everyone else. Klaus guessed it was one thing to hear Klaus’s stories about the place and another thing to actually be right in the shit.

“Yup.” Five seemed to get impatient as he often did when everyone else tried to get on the same page as him.

“What if they just come back and try again?”

“Then we’ll have to keep an eye out and keep coming back until we figure something else out, won’t we?” 

They all stopped asking questions after that. Five seemed to be pretty tense about the whole prospect of constantly having to keep the Commission away from messing up this timeline, plus all the other anomalies around the world that they’ve been trying to keep up with. Lately, they all were starting to quietly accept what had to eventually be done if they ever wanted to live in peace; they had to destroy the Commission.

None of them were particularly thrilled about this seeing as the Commission was tied up tightly as Fort Knox with some of the world’s most dangerous assassins and administration, but how else would they ever be sure that the world would be safe again?

For now, they just took baby steps. For now, they just had to protect Dave. Klaus could do that. Klaus could do that for the rest of his life.

_Then why is he dead, huh?_

Klaus clenched his teeth against the thought.

_Stop. Now’s not the time for a pity party._

Although, the thought did get him wondering…

Could he save Dave?

The thought was short-lived when they finally came across a small clearing where voices became loud and lucid. The siblings all crouched behind the tree line facing towards where a small group of about six American soldiers appeared.

Klaus thought he might know what this day was. There were a few occasions where Dave would be pulled on extra missions without Klaus in all of his badass-soldier glory, but Klaus knew this one to be fairly close to when they first got together. He would be at the Long Binh base right now- the one that’s practically a city. This day was particularly hard for Klaus because Dave didn’t return on time. He remembered that the whole squad was on edge from sun up to sundown, wondering why Sarge and Dave weren’t returning.

Now, Klaus was starting to wonder if it had anything to do with the Commission. Or would that have been a thing back then? This time travel and timeline alteration stuff really fucked with his head.

He heard Sarge’s voice first. Then he saw good ol’ Sargeant Bates himself, like a ghost of a man he used know. Then, he saw him; Dave.

Of course, at this point, Klaus just saw Dave, but this was different. This was _alive_ Dave. This was he-could-still-save-himself Dave. This was breathing, corporal, blood-pumping David Katz.

He’d be lying if he said it didn’t hurt. He’d be lying _again_ if he said he wasn’t only thinking of ways to prevent Dave’s later impending doom.

“Wait…” Luther murmured from behind Klaus, his eyes fixated on Dave ahead of them. “Isn’t that-“

“Charlie’s on the wire!” A voice pierced the air right before the world erupted into chaos. Shots rattled the entire forest, creating a relentless banging that was all too familiar in Klaus’s head. He and his siblings instinctively ducked further behind the underbrush, weaponless, and out of their element.

They never were too keen on shoot outs or guns or anything like that. Ever since they were kids, their father wasn’t a fan of using a gun. He called it “lazy”. He always preached powers over weapons, but that meant they were always slightly less prepared in situations like this.

That wasn’t the case for Klaus though. It was _terrifying_ how comfortable and how just plain good it felt to be back in a situation that kept his mind busy- it felt like he was transported back to months ago when this was his life; this was his world. He felt like he had never left. He never left Vietnam, he never left the war, and he never left Dave. His baby was still alive, they had plans for the future, and high hopes of getting out of this alive.

Of course, Klaus knew that none of this was true.

He couldn’t dwell too much on it, because soon Four realized that he now didn’t have only himself to look after, but six dumbasses who have no idea what they just got themselves into. Klaus glanced back and felt himself do a huge mental eye-roll.

These idiots were going to kill themselves. Ben was barely covered from the direction of the firefight, Vanya was balled up and shrunken away from the loud sounds that no doubt were sending her powers in a frenzy, Allison was trying to get to her but was full-out crouching into a potential line of fire, and Diego had his knives clutched in hand like that’d actually do shit to help them right now.

Dear God.

Klaus started with Ben, army-crawling over to him and tugging his jacket until he fumbled behind a grouping of trees. Ben was dead already, of course, but being shot still didn’t _feel_ good and would certainly slow all of them down. When Klaus was sure he was better hidden from fire, he waited until he heard a break in the peak of the commotion- some of the assailants were reloading.

Klaus took that time to hop over to where Vanya was huddled with her hands cupping her ears. The rest of his family were muttering angry words of protest at Klaus for moving around during a shootout, but he ignored them. After all, he was currently their best hope for surviving this thing.

The _bangs_ became denser again following the soldiers’ reload. Vanya shrunk further away, her face contorted in pain. Klaus carefully reached forward and touched feather-light fingertips on her arms, but the touch was enough to make her jump like someone had stabbed her.

With his wide eyes trying to gaze into Vanya’s to relay that he was there to help, he showed her that blocking out the sound with her fingertips was much more effective than using her whole hand, something he had learned rather quickly upon dropping down into Vietnam however many weeks ago.

When she seemed to be fairly assuaged, Klaus took her arm and helped her onto his back. She wrapped her legs firmly around his waist but kept her ears covered and just slumped against his shoulder. Klaus made sure to get a good hold on her before waiting for a window again- waiting for a reload.

When there was a spot of quiet, Klaus crouched low and moved fast further away from the commotion, focused only on getting Vanya separated from the earsplitting noise a bit.

Mind you, this is all while every one of his other siblings kind of just stared at him in awe…

_Thanks for the help, guys._

Once tucked further into the forest with Vanya, Klaus carefully ducked behind a thick tree and let Vanya down to her feet.

“Thanks!” She yelled over the constant _bang, bang, bangs,_ fingers still pressed over her ears. Klaus patted her head like the adorably small but immensely powerful kiddo she was, and turned to survey the action again, realizing that it may be time to secure a gun if Vanya’s powers were all mixed up like glass in a blender.

“Lucky” for him, a Vietnamese soldier straggler had taken notice of the random seven visitors hidden in a pocket in the woods, dressed in strangely threatening black attire. Klaus realized that they probably looked like some special stealth team for the American army or something- either way, not good.

“Klaus!” He heard Allie’s voice scream a warning through deafening noise surrounding them, but he had already turned to see the barrel of the gun staring into his face.

There wasn’t time to think or try to explain or _anything_ , really… Klaus just kicked into gear. Before he even knew what he was doing, his instincts kicked in and he smacked the barrel to the side, twisting the gun until the lone, confused Vietnamese soldier yelped and let go, but not before firing a panicked shot into the Earth next to Klaus’s feet. He felt the metal of the gun glow red hot against his hand and quickly pulled back but didn’t let that slow him.

Klaus stepped forward lightning-fast and elbowed the guy in the side of the head, simultaneously kicking out his knee from behind and sending him to the ground. All the while, Number Four grabbed the gun once again, finally in full possession.

It felt so familiar to grab an AK-47 and whip it into ready position, his finger on the trigger, and his other hand holding up the long barrel that was pointing at the soldier on the ground. It felt so normal to be pointing a death machine at a Charlie- it felt so right. For a second, Klaus forgot that his siblings were here. He forgot that he left Vietnam at all. Suddenly, he was back…

And very frighteningly in his element.

It didn’t make sense for him to _miss_ this right? Of course, things were more simple back then. Dave was alive and he and Klaus loved each other. They had one goal in mind- just keep surviving. Nowadays, Klaus didn’t know what the fuck was going on at any point in the day. With his siblings, with the timeline, with the apocalypse, and especially not with ghost-Dave.

So, maybe he did miss this a little.

_Simpler times._

That being said, he didn’t want to _kill_ the guy.

“Chúng tôi say!” Klaus yelled at the man, trying to enforce that they came in peace and didn’t want trouble.

The man looked even more confused though, his brow tightening and his fists clenching in a pouncing position. Klaus bit his lip.

“Shit…”

Did he get that translation right? He always mixed up "We are friendly" with "We are drunk". 

_Oops_.

The soldier glanced back in the direction he came from. Klaus glanced up to see the rest of the Vietnamese soldiers through the trees, still shooting at Dave, Sarge, and the rest of their specialized squad.

“No, no, no…”  
Klaus tried to warn.

“Dừng lại!” 

But the man was already opening his mouth to scream a warning at his buddies. Klaus pressed the barrel against the guy’s forehead and he froze.

“Don’t do this, dude.” Klaus begged. He wasn’t planning on full-on obliterating anyone on this mission. It’d be _quite_ a bummer to explode this guy's brains all over the place, especially in front of all of his watching family. Plus, Klaus never truly got over the killing thing. He still remembered every single time he pulled the trigger and someone went down. He didn’t want to add this or any fella to the list.

Any hope in that dissipated when the guy broke his trance to grab down at his ankle, pulling out a small pistol just enough for Klaus to see and act before it was too late and it was _his_ brains all over the place.

He pulled the trigger and looked away.

Allie gasped behind him and Diego went, “oooh…”. Klaus still refused to look but could see a deep crimson glow in the sunlight out of the corner of his eye. He let his shoulders let go of their tenseness and slowly lowered the gun, smoke still pouring off the tip. Klaus sighed, his hands starting to tremble like they often did when he shot- when he killed.

“Goddamn it.” He muttered, feeling his heart drop at what he had just done. He heard Dave’s voice in his head.

_It was him or you, baby. You’re not a cold-blooded killer. I know you. You’re not._

“Klaus! We can’t go around messing with the timeline. What if that guy was-“

“Shut it, Five.” Luther smoothed over Five’s rude protests. Klaus finally looked at where all his siblings crouched, every eye on him. Five was horrified, not by the gory display in front of him, but by the idea that Klaus could’ve possibly just created a ripple effect in the timeline (unlikely, but possible).

Luther stared at Klaus with worried, surprised eyes, seeming at least understanding enough to know Five’s gripes weren’t doing Klaus any favors.

Vanya squeezed her eyes shut and was looking away from the scene in front of her, ears still covered.

Diego had an eyebrow raised, staring straight at the gruesome remains of the soldier on the ground. He glanced between him and Klaus, at an utter loss for words.  
Allison refused to glance at the corpse, so instead, she just looked up at Klaus with those giant, puppy-dog sympathy eyes.

Ben was the only one who had any kind of background to how Klaus had come to fit in this environment so well. Still, he too was frozen in slight shock.

It was only then when Four realized the rest of the shooting had stopped. He quickly crouched down behind the underbrush to look through the leaves at the cautiously emerging American squad across the way. It seemed they had neutralized the Vietnamese soldiers and were searching for any stragglers. Klaus’s eyes remained solely focused on Dave though, swallowing a thick lump and remembering how perfectly his arm flexed when he held his gun- how laser-focused his eyes became.

Movement distracted Klaus though, and once again, he found himself acting on pure impulse. There were new faces through the trees a few yards from where the seven of them hid. Klaus raised his gun, his finger gently prodding the trigger.

“Five-“

“I see ‘em.”

“Is that-“ 

_…them._ Klaus was going to ask regarding the commission members sent to assassinate Dave and fuck up their apocalypse-averting timeline, but his question was quickly answered when the mysteriously well-dressed man and woman through the trees raised a rather large gun pointing _straight_ at Dave.

Klaus didn’t even think _twice_ this time. He fired just as the commission man fired- so simultaneously that Klaus wondered if maybe he was too late.

But all at once, Sarge grabbed Dave’s vest and yanked him down out of the way and the commission’s bullet missed. Klaus’s didn’t. The suited dude was clearly hit and fell out of sight, the woman still at large.

Klaus was about to take her out too, but Five grabbed his bicep and dug his little fingernails into Klaus’s skin.

“Ah-“ 

“Stop. You’ll give us away. Look.”

And Five was right- for a split second when Klaus looked back at Dave, he _swore_ their eyes met for the tiniest of moments. That split-second was short-lived though because the woman started shooting and the squad’s attention was instantly directed towards her.

The lady didn’t stand a chance. Who knew who ended up taking her out once Dave, Sarge, and every one of the rest of them started shooting. Wasn’t important anyway. What was important was that she too fell out of sight and Dave was safe again.

Well… not present-day Dave, but this Dave.

One step at a time.

Sarge started barking complaints such as, “What is this FUBAR bullshit out here?”, but from what Klaus could tell, Dave wasn’t listening. Instead, he was once again staring towards where the seven super-sibs crouched out of sight… or hopefully, out of sight.

“Get down, idiot.” Five pulled Klaus lower to the ground. Reluctantly, Klaus let him. He had to admit, it was awfully tempting to go to Dave right now. Just to hug his living, breathing body one last time, or as an attempt to warn him of the tragedy to come, Klaus did not know. All he knew was that Five would probably take _him_ out before he could even get close.

A few seconds went by just listening to the squad check the area for any further hostiles. It gave Klaus time to glance over at his siblings once again, each one of them still a bit frozen in shock.

Honestly, Klaus probably would’ve been better off doing this mission alone with all the “help” these guys were.

Damn… he had never thought _that_ before.

“Katz! C’mon, the truck’s waiting.”

Sarge’s voice made Klaus tense at the sound of Dave’s name. Four balled himself up further, feeling a little too exposed even in the dense treeline. His worries weren’t all unfounded either- Klaus was _not_ expecting Dave’s answer to come from only but five feet away from him.

“I- Doesn’t something seem- I don’t know… weird.” Dave’s voice rumbled from _much_ too close. In fact, the only thing currently hiding Klaus from Dave’s view was one single tree with a gathering of vines and leaves entangling its trunk.

Klaus stopped breathing, feeling like Dave was close enough to hear at this point.

“Katz, c’mon. We’ve been away much too long. The squad’s otta think we bit it. We can discuss in-“

“I just… They didn’t look like Charlie’s, man.”

“They shot at us. Almost took you out. Sounds like charlies to me. You been out in the sun too long, boy?”

A long pause progressed and Klaus could hear Dave shift his weight directly behind where he ducked his own head. Klaus was going to run out of air soon if he didn’t fucking breathe in the next couple of seconds.

“ _KATZ.”_

“Okay, yeah, yeah…”

The sounds of Dave’s footsteps fading away were enough assurance for Klaus to take a giant breath of air, his lungs begging to be fed.

“Fucking hell, that was close.” Diego murmured, starting to push himself up while helping Allie simultaneously.

“Klaus- that was… wasn’t that-“ Luther gestured towards where Dave previously stood not but a few feet from them a moment ago. Klaus wasn’t really into the idea of explaining the whole concept of where he met Dave and how Dave was a ghost now and how he was hopelessly in love and blah, blah, blah. Instead, he stood like the others and pretended to not hear Luther’s confused babbling.

The sound of the truck’s motor softly hummed in the distance and Klaus glanced over just in time to catch the sight of Dave’s back disappearing into the forest and out of sight.

Just that vision- that picture of Dave turned away and leaving- it stung Klaus deep. This could be the last time he was seeing Dave alive.

The thoughts he had from earlier reappeared in Klaus’s brain like an excited buzz- what if he still had time? What if he could still save him? Warn him?

Klaus couldn't just do _nothing_. God, how would he ever face Dave again knowing that he had a chance to go back and protect him- protect him like he wasn’t able to the first time around?

The thought of fixing everything was like a drug to Klaus- it filled his chest with aching hope. These thoughts were like his new obsession, controlling his mind, and…

Now his body?

 _Uh-oh, Klaus-boy. Whatcha doin’ there, buddy?_ He asked himself once he realized that his feet were taking steps on their own accord- steps towards where Dave had disappeared into the trees.

 _Five’s gonna stop me. Five’s gonna kill me._ Klaus thought, even a little comforted by the fact that his brother wasn’t going to let him do anything stupid. Part of him _wanted_ someone to stop him, but a bigger part wanted this- _needed_ this. His subconscious desired to follow Dave and he was never too great at telling his subconscious desires, “no”.

And once Klaus was halfway through the woods towards the sound of the trucks, he started to realize no one was paying attention to him. With a quick glance to his right, Klaus saw that they were all checking out the area where the commissioners were shot dead on sight, the lot of his siblings all discussing things that were too quiet for Klaus to understand.

His path was clear- his thoughts were clear. Klaus ducked into another thick line of trees and could once again see Dave who was hopping onto a familiar truck.

 _This is a bad idea._ The angel on Klaus’s shoulder whispered.

 _But this is home._ Insisted the devil.

…Or maybe it was the other way around?

Either way, one thing both sides of Klaus could agree on was,

_This is trouble._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> They flutter behind you, your possible pasts  
> Some bright-eyed and crazy, some frightened and lost  
> A warning to anyone still in command  
> Of their possible future, to take care  
> In derelict sidings, the poppies entwine  
> With cattle trucks lying in wait for the next time  
> Do you remember me? How we used to be?
> 
> LOVE me some Pink Floyd.  
> NEXT UP: What's that I hear? TEDDY? Lots and lots of Teddy??
> 
> Also, everyone make sure to stay tuned for Robbie and Tom's new podcast!


	7. Cornerstone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The siblings get a glimpse into Klaus's more private endeavors. Plus some Teddy for y'all.

Allison was just… out of her element here. First of all, this damn anomaly popped up out of nowhere (not unlike all the other one’s she’s lost count of) and left them with barely any explanation of what was going on. As always, Five knew more than the rest of them and didn’t feel it important to _communicate_ like a normal human being.

Only, this mission, Five wasn’t the only one with information that he was holding back.

What the (excuse her French) _fuck_ was up with Klaus?

With so much to focus on; constant, ear-splitting shots, choppers and smoke in the distance, a full-out jungle engulfing them… Allison’s attention was constantly split, trying to keep up. But one thing she could never tear her eyes from was Klaus and his completely unexpected and sudden badassery. He was _slaying_ this mission, and this was the guy who usually got distracted at the mere sight of a passing butterfly she was talking about.

While they all gathered around the area where the commissioners’ bodies should be, Allie caught up to Luther and gently touched his arm once she knew they were separated enough from the others to have a private conversation.

“Hey,” She caught his attention, his eyes glancing back at her. His brow was always creased on missions, no matter how much imminent danger they were in at the moment. Allison knew how stressed he was whenever they did Umbrella Academy stuff. She would be too if she put the safety of all of her siblings completely on her own shoulders like Luther did. “, what’s up with Klaus?”

She realized she could just ask Klaus, but she didn’t want to touch a nerve quite yet without more information. Plus, she was so confused that she had zero idea what to expect. Of course, she planned on speaking to him later.

Allison was starting to wonder how much none of them knew about Number Four.

Luther shrugged, eyes off in thought.

“Was thinkin’ the same thing.”

Allison bit her lip and frowned, trying to sort through what she just saw. Maybe she should be checking if he was okay rather than asking everyone else if they knew what the hell was happening.

She scanned the forest that they all trudged through, none of them having any luck on finding any bodies. Five was muttering something about the Commission’s tendency to make their own corpses disappear in order to keep the timelines intact. Lately, after every mission that a commission member was (unfortunately) killed, Five was intent on finding the bodies to extract any kind of tech- radio transmitters, briefcases, mission statements… anything to help them get a better grasp on how to ultimately defeat or appease the Commission.

No luck so far. They always disappeared.

 _Always_.

Speaking of disappearing…

“Uh…” Allison did another quick check of their surroundings. “Where _is_ Klaus?”

The rest of them stopped what they were doing and glanced around, soon realizing what she was talking about. He was nowhere to be found.

Five’s jaw clenched and he looked up at the sky in frustration.

“Shit.”

“Klaus!” Luther called, immediately earning a slap in the chest from Diego.

“Dude, you want to put a target on our ass?”

All of them broke into their own mini arguments after that, none of them able to get any real words in. Sometimes it quite literally _shocked_ Allison how dysfunctional this family was. It was amazing they were getting by on a day to day basis under all of their current conditions.

Her tactic was to go straight for Ben- the Klaus expert if there ever was one. Before she could ask if he knew what was going on with their more “unpredictable” brother, Ben sushed every last one of them.

“Hey, hey! I’ll go get him.” Ben promised, holding his wrist out for them all to see a leather band that must’ve been Klaus’s. Ben was always wearing something of Klaus’s. Something about strengthening his “ghostly” connection. With how present Ben was these days, she sometimes forgot he was a ghost, honestly. That was a good thing. She loved having Ben around again. Sometimes, it still drove a spike into her heart every time she looked at him. It wasn’t sadness or anything like that- it was just pure astonishment that they were lucky enough to have him back. Every single day of her life, she had missed him.

The rest of them agreed to let Ben do his thing, and he evaporated before their eyes…

…Only to return less than a minute later.

“He… banished me!” Ben tried to find the right way of putting it, his body clearly tense with surging anger. Allison frowned and Diego snorted.

“He _banished_ you?” D smirked, earning a dirty look from Ben.

“I think he’s freaking out.”

“What do you mean freaking out?” Allison asked, her heart pounding just a bit faster. She would admit- she had already been worried about Klaus lately. She hadn’t said anything about it quite yet (except to Luther), but he had been acting strange this past month. He was more absent, less annoying, quieter, drawn back, and clearly troubled by something. There was always this darkness behind his eyes. She couldn’t quite explain it.

With all of this in mind, it was starting to scare her that they quite literally lost him in a damn warzone. _Already,_ losing Klaus in any kind of dangerous place was just bad news with his erratic tendencies, but even worse, he hadn’t been himself lately.

Ever since she became a mother, she really worried about these things.

“He’s- Panicking, or something. I don’t know. It was like he didn’t even hear me. The moment I got there, he did something with his wrist and I was whisked back here.”

“Can he just do that?” Diego pushed, looking doubtful. Allie didn’t blame him. The last time she checked, Klaus’s powers were more of a ‘they-control-him’ kind of deal.

“Yeah.” Vanya spoke up, surprising them all. “His powers have come a long way, guys.”

“Well, shit. Fuck. Shit.” Five kicked at some large palm fronds. “He has _no_ idea the damage that he can inflict. If-“

“Okay, we don’t have much time then.” Allison cut into Five’s tantrum.

“She’s right. He’s headed along the truck’s tire tracks that just left. He’s going towards their- their army base or- or camp or wherever the other guys are going.” Ben blurted out as fast as he could, his mind seemingly working faster than his mouth. Allison had the urge to go over and put her arm around Six- for all _she_ worried about Klaus, Ben was that times a thousand. I mean, the two were _literally_ inseparable for years. Allie found it pretty adorable and was happy to hear that Ben got somewhat of a half-life during all that time that she thought he was gone, but she also saw the toll that watching over Klaus had on him. He was always a little tense as far as personalities go, but watching him now, she could nearly feel the nervousness radiating from his body… or lack thereof.

“We can’t be far behind.” Luther nodded, already heading in that direction.

“Can’t Five just jump us there?” Diego refused to budge. Allison resisted the urge to groan. Even when Luther suggested the smallest of things, Diego _had_ to initially resist like it was his god-given-destiny to always do so.

“Not if you want to get home, no.” Five grumbled tiredly, following in Luther’s footsteps. For as much as an asshole as he could be, Five did sacrifice a lot for them all and for the world to stay intact. The amount of energy that it took for him to jump them all back into the past and across the world simultaneously was something she couldn’t even begin to fathom.

On that note, they all did it the old-fashioned way- one foot in front of another.

“I hope he’s okay… and I want to find him…” Allison trudged along, _TWO HOURS LATER_. “…but once we do, I’m going to strangle him.”

A strong hand gently rubbed her back comfortingly. Allison gave a sad grin at her best friend, glad that at least they were all in this shit together.

“Get in line,” Diego mumbled, readjusting his sheath of knives around his torso.

“Don’t worry. Might be able to get to do that soon.” Five nodded his head to the right of where they walked along the muddy tracks.

Structures. Sweet, sweet manmade structures were coming into view through the trees. It started out as one concrete building that seemed to house a bunch of army trucks, and then, the more they walked, _boom_ … a whole goddamn city appeared.

It wasn’t _actually_ a city. She could tell by the strong reinforcements surrounding the entirety of the place- barbed wire fences, concrete walls, guards, et cetera. It was clearly a base of some sort but never had she _ever_ imagined any army base to feel quite like this one did. It was monolithic and buzzing with life if you listened close enough. There were motors, muffled voices, music… The whole deal.

“What is this?”

“Long Binh, I’m guessing.” Five answered nonchalantly. They all gave him a look. “What? I do research before we come to these places, you know. We dropped only a couple miles away.”

Luther gave Allison a side glance that she was sure said, ‘Typical Five, not telling us shit’.

“You think that’s where he went? Inside _there_?” Diego pointed at the city that was fortified more intensely than Fort Knox.

“Yeah.” Ben nodded. “He’s in there.”

“You’re _sure_? ‘Cause-“

“I’m sure. I just know.” Ben cut Diego off. Allison trusted him wholeheartedly when it came to anything Klaus-related. One, they did share a bond that none of them could ever understand. Ben’s soul was bonded to Klaus’s; they knew things about each other with just one single glance. Two, Ben knew more about Klaus’s ties to this place than he was letting on. On the walk over, Luther tried to get Ben to let them in on what all that chaos with Klaus a moment ago was about. Ben wouldn’t say much though. Just,

“There’s a lot you guys don’t know but to keep it simple, he accidentally ended up here over a month ago.”

Despite the fact that _all_ of their jaws dropped and they insisted on more details, Ben started getting irritated, most likely due to his nerves.

“Ask him when we find him.” Was all he’d say.

And to keep things short, they did. They did find him. It took a while and a lot of finagling- Five had to jump them into the base at the risk that he might be too exhausted to do anything else later. Then, they were immediately caught by a bunch of stunned soldiers who Vanya knocked out with a swipe of her hand. The rest was just a _lot_ of sneaking around until they realized they were stupid and they didn’t have to be wearing a uniform to fit in- a surprising number of guys weren’t actually in normal army fatigues. The outfits the six of them wore looked a little out of place, but other than a few stares, they made it by.

The only reason they were able to find Klaus in a place like this was that Ben was finally able to get through to him and locate their favorite menace. He was at one of many cabin-like barracks, according to Six. As the skies got darker, their weary Umbrella Academy squad (minus one) slunk through the streets of the Long Binh base until they reached a grouping of conformed wooden structures that luckily was separated a bit from the rest of the action.

_How the hell did he even get in here?_ Allison wondered as soon as she saw Klaus’s dark silhouette pressed against the window on the side of the building.

“Someone make sure I don’t goddamn murder him.” Five gritted his teeth from behind Allie as they approached in a hurried stride. She just wanted to get out of here and take a long bath and go to bed.

_First, Klaus._

_But which Klaus?_

Because holy hell, there were two. The first was the silhouette of _their_ Klaus. The second was inside the cabin, wearing the same thing that many of the soldiers around here were wearing. He wasn’t alone either. There was some other guy in there- built, curly blond locks…

And a hand wrapped in Klaus’s.

Allison was instantly intrigued to the point where her feet stopped carrying her forward and she halted completely to watch through the window from about ten feet away. A few of the others saw what she saw and stopped to observe too. It was only Five and Luther who Allison had to grab by the backs of their jackets and yank back to a stop.

All six of them hovered a few feet back from present-day Klaus and did just what he did- watched in awe.

Klaus-two was clearly upset about something, and the windows were clearly thin as paper so they could hear his voice project angrily.

"Just… _Poof._ Gone. Like you never happened."

"Klaus, baby…" The mystery guy who Allie could only see from behind raised a hand to cup Klaus's face. "I'll tell you all about it, but I _did_ say goodbye."

"Oh, I beg to differ, Sir." Klaus was saying.

"Yes. This morning, I tried to shake you awake to tell you I had to go and you said something like 'Avocados are best served cool' and I said 'Okay, well I'll be back later. I promise.' and you said, 'In your dreams, Hook.' to which I just kissed your forehead and left."

"Well, pfft. Obviously, I was not in this realm."

"Clearly."

Allie’s heart just dropped.

So much made sense… and it hurt her so bad.

She didn’t know how Klaus ended up in Vietnam in 1968 (although she wasn’t 100% surprised- it’s Klaus, after all) but she accepted that he must’ve been here longer than they thought. Mostly because of what she was seeing right now.

Klaus _met_ someone. Klaus fell in _love_ with someone. And she knew it by the look on his face when he stared into this guy’s eyes. She’d never seen Klaus with that expression, but she did know it. Allison used to be the most hopeless of all hopeless romantics. However, that being said, she had _never_ seen anyone look at another person quite like Klaus gazed at this guy. She knew instantly that this wasn’t just some other Klaus-style booty call.

And “this guy” seemed not-so-oddly familiar to the one who randomly popped up in their living room earlier which suddenly was also making more sense.

So,

  1. Klaus is gay (whatever, she basically could see that coming from a mile away).
  2. Klaus is in love.
  3. Klaus is in heartbreak.
  4. Klaus fought in a war?



What on God’s green Earth?

"It doesn't. I don't know. Maybe I was just tired. And hopelessly missing you." The mystery guy said, nudging Klaus in the side and making him smile. Past-Klaus resigned to collapsing into the nook of boyfriend-guy’s neck and shoulder and the two of them gently swayed while holding one another.

Allison gritted her teeth against a sudden burn in her eyes. Something about watching this moment that she may have never know about… something that Klaus should want to come to her about- something Klaus should feel he could trust her with… it hurt. It wasn’t news to her that they hadn’t all been the best of siblings to one another, but sometimes there was a moment where it got to her.

Especially when she realized that the only way for this guy to appear magically in 2019 was for him to have died and shown up as a ghost. He had a bloody hole in his back straight through his chest when he appeared too. If that wasn’t a good indicator of the tragedy that must’ve unfolded, she didn’t know what was. Something horrific happened, and Klaus has been in agony ever since.

She had been so ignorant and neglectful towards all the signs. She thought she was doing better at the ‘thinking-of-others’ thing. The ‘being-a-good-sister’ thing. She and Klaus used to be best friends. She knew something other than the sobriety was going on. Why the _hell_ didn’t she say anything?

If she didn’t act in the past, Allison made damn sure that she’d act now, even if she didn’t know what the hell to do. So, starting with baby steps and her mom-instincts, Allie stepped forward until she could see her own reflection and Klaus’s ( _her_ Klaus’s) in the windowpane. His eyes flickered to hers on the glass, dismissing her quickly and looking back at himself and the other soldier from the past.

When Allison slid her fingertips gently over Klaus’s bicep, he didn’t flinch in the slightest. He just let her wrap her arms around his torso and rest her head on his shoulder, the two of them just watching like their favorite play.

Allison could just barely see the reflection of everyone else’s faces in the window too. They matched her own expression a moment ago- in pure, heartbreaking awe that something so monumental to Klaus existed without a single one of them having any of the slightest clue (save for Ben).

“Klaus.” Allison finally had to speak up when it looked like past-Klaus and his boyfriend were grabbing stuff to leave the cabin. If they waltzed out and came face to face with present-Klaus and all his siblings… Well, she wasn’t exactly sure what would happen, but Five made it pretty clear that it wouldn’t be good.

Her brother didn’t stir within her arms though, and she gave him a little squeeze, feeling how noticeably thin he had gotten in the past month (something else that was often bothering her). She was half-afraid she’d crack his ribs with just one embrace.

“We gotta go, my dude.” Ben added from behind, his voice apologetic and absent of all previous anger he had towards Number Four.

Allie felt Klaus take a deep sigh and she took that as a good sign, unraveling herself from around him. She still kept a hand on his arm, having this inexplicable feeling that if she lost contact, they may lose him again somehow.

“Yeah.” Was all Klaus muttered, taking one last longing look inside before turning towards his waiting family who didn’t know what to say. If it was under any other circumstance, Allison was _sure_ Klaus would get a verbal beating (and possibly physical) for running off like that and causing such a goddamn mess, but even Five wouldn’t make any harsh comments now.

Three mentally prepared herself for a long conversation when they got home. At least they were _going_ home now, all of them starting to huddle like they did before a jump.

And then, she saw it first out of the corner of her eye- when no one was expecting it, the cabin door opened. But Klaus didn’t shrink away out of sight and Five didn’t yet have time to quickly jump out of this place… not before Klaus instead lunged _towards_ the opening door, seemingly set on intentionally catching his past-self as he came out.

Chaos ensued.

Five disappeared and reappeared in a flash on top of Klaus’s back, taking them both to the ground with a yelp via Klaus. Vanya thought fast and blew the cabin door shut again with a burst of energy. Allison prepared for the possibility that she may have to use her powers to make past-Klaus and past-Klaus’s-boyfriend forget about anything strange they saw.

More importantly, Luther pulled them all together again just in time for Five to close his eyes in concentration as a blue light projected around all of them. In less than a second, Allison felt her feet lift off the ground and her world turned upside down.

With Klaus’s sudden impulse soiled and hopefully no bystanders to see their little “magic” display, they were finally _now_ going home.

* * *

“I could warn him! How am I not supposed to? What kind of fucking person does that make me?”

“Apparently a complete goddamn idiot!” Five yelled back at Klaus, flashing on top of Dad’s bar and slapping Klaus on the back of the head. The asshole was small, but his sharp hits and jabs always hurt like hell.

Klaus spun around and tried to shove him back, but Five spatial jumped back to the ground before he could.

“You’re a fucking hypocrite, you know that? What did _you_ do when _you_ found out that _we_ all died?”

“Yeah, well I’m seriously regretting it now.” Five spat back. Klaus rolled his eyes, knowing he didn’t mean it but wishing he just got Klaus’s point already.

“Five. You did _exactly_ what I’m trying to do.”

“And look what happened. The Commission’s all over our ass, the world is changed, we have more enemies that didn’t even exist in the past timeline, and who knows what else! _I_ know how this stuff works. You don’t know shit.”

“Can’t you help me?”

“No.”

“I always help you with all your bullshit!”

“Because my ‘bullshit’ doesn’t potentially melt your brain and cause an existential anomaly that swallows the fucking universe, asshole.”

He and Five had gotten into somewhat of a screaming match ever since they dropped down in their living room. It was a rough landing too- usually, they all had more time to prepare before a big time jump, but with Klaus’s sudden attempt to “screw everything up” as Five put it, they all kind of just collapsed back into 2019.

“Fucking forget it. On my own as always.”

“Hey-“ Ben spoke from behind him, his voice saturated with offence. Klaus was about to say that Ben was just his forever exception, but Allie unexpectedly entered with her own stance.

“Speaking of which, what the hell, Klaus?” She didn’t sound angry. If anything, she sounded a little hurt.

Really? Out of everyone here, he felt like he deserved to own that position.

“Dude. How could you just not tell us that you time traveled? To a war? For how long? And you met someone?” Diego flowed out with the questions that seemed to reflect similarly on everyone else’s faces.

“Was that Dave?” Luther asked for the third time that day.

“How long were you there?” Vanya joined in.

“That was who you lost!” Diego realized from their earlier conversation outside of VFW.

All of this buzz was making Klaus’s head spin, especially after his brains were already scrambled from behind zapped back into the present-day. Not to mention, he had absolutely no interest in anything his family was saying because the only thing he could truly think of was the agonizing hope that Dave was still upstairs right now.

On cue, suddenly he was. Klaus heard the floorboards creak from above and glanced up the stairs to see Dave appear in the hallway with a concerned look on his face. No doubt, they were creating quite the ruckus.

Klaus was the only one to notice his ghostie. The rest of them were too into their own questions and concerns that came all too late in Klaus’s opinion. If they really would’ve cared, maybe they could’ve actually realized he had been kidnapped. Maybe they would’ve asked about Klaus’s wellbeing every once in a while. Maybe they would’ve taken a fucking interest if that’s not too much to ask.

He knew he was being a little unfair considering a good number of them _were_ worried and asking about him in the last month, but he was just so _angry_. Klaus had a sneaking suspicion that he may not even be truly mad at his siblings. He could feel all of that anxious energy about seeing alive-Dave again projecting right back onto his family who currently sounded like a pack of bumbling idiots.

Oh well. Sounds like a them problem. Klaus knew what he wanted to do with the rest of his day.

“Peace.” He signed off, shoving past Five and ascending the stairs. He grabbed Dave’s hand (whose confused gaze was even enough to send excited chills down Klaus’s spine) and dragged him back to his own room.

Peace indeed. Peace at last.

“What happened? You guys were only gone for, like, thirty minutes.” Dave noted as soon as the door was closed. Klaus was about to comment on how for them, it was closer to three hours, but he didn't feel like explaining the nuances of time travel right now. Instead, Klaus locked the door and let out a big sigh, theatrically collapsing into Dave’s arms so that he was forced to hold Klaus upright. He chuckled into Klaus’s hair and rubbed his back.

“That rough?”

“The _audacity_ , David.” Klaus mumbled into Dave’s shirt that he just realized was different from before. In fact, he wasn’t wearing his fatigues at all. He was in dark jeans and gray t-shirt.

“How’d you do that?”

“I don’t know. Kind of just happened while you were gone. I remember I did have clothes like this.”

“Weird. Cool.” Klaus approved, giving another shrug towards the weird world of “ghost physics”.

He pushed himself off Dave and kicked into a long rant about everything. In it, he explained how he kept a lot of what happened from his siblings, and how they treat him (even when he’s sober), and how Five’s a complete ass, and how they were, like, _zero_ help on this mission, and how he desperately wanted to reach out to alive-Dave and fix this mess that they were so unjustly thrown into, and-

“Okay, I’m listening, but I’m afraid you’re going to make yourself pass out. Sit down.” Dave eventually cut in, gently taking Klaus’s wrist and lowering them both onto his bed. Now that he thought about it, Klaus did feel a little lightheaded from all the pure _truth_ he was spewing.

“So you saw us? From the past?” Dave clarified questioningly, taking the time to push himself back on the bed and sit behind Klaus, his hands massaging his shoulders. Klaus didn’t even realize that he had all his muscles tensed as tightly as they would go. With Dave’s touch, he felt them instantaneously unravel. He melted backward into Dave.

“Yeah. It really freaked me out. I don’t know what happened. I kind of just went into a trance.” Klaus remembered, not recalling much of his long walk to the base. He did remember finally reaching the gates and being lucky as hell that he knew the guard, Michael. The guy was confused as to why Klaus looked like he was wearing some ridiculous cross of a rockstar-ninja getup, but let him through into Long Binh.

From there, his subconscious seemed to know where to go, because Klaus ended up right where he knew he needed to be without having to think about it- outside the barracks that he and Dave and the rest of the squad stayed in during their time in Long Binh- the same place Klaus remembered reuniting with Dave after the mission he just witnessed.

When Klaus had arrived (furture-Klaus, that is), he was a split second away from being caught by his former self. Not only him though. Just to twist a knife right into his already bleeding wound, a familiar cackle projected across the street as 1968-Klaus appeared with his friends.

Teddy.

Don’t get him wrong. There wasn’t a single day that passed by when he didn’t miss that beautiful, giggly motherfucker. In fact, right after Dave, Teddy was often the next thought Klaus had in the morning or afternoon or whenever he woke up in a cold sweat from PTSD nightmares.

However, _seeing_ him was a whole different ballgame. _Seeing_ him was like being slammed in the face by painfully wonderful memories of his goofy grin and bright, curious eyes… his trusting, unexpected eyes. If Klaus had to pick one human that personified the very best parts of youth and promise, it’d be Teds.

And that was all destroyed in the matter of minutes.

Part of Klaus was glad he got to see Teddy alive and well again for the sole reason of not having that gory image burned into his brain as the last memory he kept of the kid. He’d take his wild giggles over bloody gurgles any day.

_“BLITZ!” Big Al’s voice had been the first Klaus had heard._

_“Blitz!” Teddy chirped in after him. Big Al rolled his eyes and threw his head back._

_“Nah, man. YOU don’t say blitz when I say blitz, it’s- Ugh. Okay, ready? Listen this time.“_

_But Teddy was enjoying messing with Big Al too much, holding back cackles every time he failed at being taught some card game called “Dutch Blitz” that Big Al had been obsessed with lately. On the flip side, Klaus was uncharacteristically quiet, still terrified of what may have become of Dave._

Speaking of Dave, current-Katz had slowed his massaging of Klaus’s shoulders and resorted to gently kissing the back of Klaus’s neck instead, his hands gently running up and down Klaus’s biceps while he hummed a song.

He did that a lot when Klaus would be stressed over particularly bad missions. Especially near the beginning of his tour when they first started dating and Klaus wasn’t accustomed to... you know… seeing people dying right in front of him all the time.

“Sorry, I’m back.” Klaus apologized through a big dramatic sigh, truly feeling guilty that after finally being reunited with Dave, he was zoning out.

“Where’d you go?” Dave ceased his humming and asked in a low voice against Klaus’s ear, sending shivers throughout his entire being.

_Fuck,_ he loved it when he did that.

“Mm. Doesn’t matter now.” Klaus answered, and sadly that was true. He could beat himself up about Teddy all he wanted to. He could hurt over Dave’s lost life for the rest of his _own_ life. It wouldn’t bring them back though.

“Hey. Don’t shut me out, remember? I’m right here.” Dave pulled Klaus back so that he was leaning against Dave’s chest, completely encircled in his arms. Klaus chuckled. “What?” Klaus could hear the confused smile in Dave’s voice.

“Just that you can, like, pick up old conversations where we left off like it was yesterday.”

“I mean, to me, it kind of felt like yesterday.”

Klaus raised an eyebrow and sighed once more.

“Must be nice.”

Dave squeezed him tight after that, nearly crushing his bones to dust and only getting tighter.

“Ah! Dave…”

“I’m proving I’m very much right here with you.”

Klaus struggled to laugh and gasped out a plead,

“Okay! Okay… I believe you! I believe you!”

, until Dave finally let up on his grip and Klaus could suck in sweet air again, his body collapsing to the floor and forearm falling across his face like the drama queen he was.

Klaus moaned, feeling his bone structure shift back into place.

“I could snap you in half much too easily, baby.”

“Dave, I know you just got here, but it’s 2019. We like _body positivity_.” Klaus chuckled at himself despite the fact he knew his boyfriend had every right to be concerned. Now that he thought about it, he did feel dizzy.

“When was the last time you ate, primadonna?”

Klaus pouted up at Dave underneath his forearm, electing to ignore that question. Food was the last thing on his mind right now. Instead, Klaus pushed himself up and cocked his head to the side.

“Why eat when my favorite snack is right here?”

Dave scrunched up his nose and giggled at that one like he did when he truly was stunned and confused by something Klaus said- often, it was when Four would spout out 2019 garble that he wouldn’t understand.

In any case, Klaus loved it when he got Dave to laugh like that. It was like a sudden break in Dave’s usual put-together sultry-ness. And Klaus just _relished_ in the idea that _he_ did that.

But his own smile faded and Dave’s followed suit. They stared at each other in heavy air.

“How do- how are you not kind of losing your mind right now?”

“Klaus, I don’t know what the hell I’m doing.”

“Oh. You always just seem like you do.”

“Nope. Just… glad to be here with you. The rest we can figure out later.”

Klaus reached out his right foot to rock back and forward, tapping Dave’s ankle as he sat on the bed above Klaus. He didn’t know what to do with this- what to think about all of this. He was happy about Dave, but he was sad about what was lost. He wanted to start learning how to accept this as their new normal, but he also wanted to do anything and everything to make it all better. He wanted to believe Dave would never leave again, but he didn’t think he could handle losing him again for any number of ghostly reasons.

“ _You_ should be the worrywart. _I’m_ the cool relaxed one!” Klaus complained, earning a kick in the leg from Dave. Speaking of which, at this point, Klaus had somehow subtly scooted forward enough to be sitting practically right below Dave, his legs starting to lazily encircle Dave’s own that hung off the bed. With each passing second, Klaus guessed he just subconsciously needed to be close to Dave. It was like his body was slowly gravitating like a magnet.

“Hey.” Dave complained at his last comment, contrarily smirking at Klaus’s slow gravitation at the same time.

“You think I’ll ever believe this? That you’re here?” Klaus asked, first in his head, and then reminding himself that this was Dave and he told Dave everything.

Dave gave a sad smile down at him.

“I mean, I hope.”

It wasn’t really the answer Klaus was looking for, but he wasn’t even sure what he wanted Dave to say. It must’ve just been one of those things that came with time… and maybe a whole lot of fucking therapy.

“Buuuuuuut, maybe I can convince you.”

“Wh-“

Dave just so much as shifted a bit and Klaus jumped up off the floor and fled to the other side of the room.

“Don’t squeeze me again!” He shrieked, falling victim to one of his sudden bursts of energy and escaping to a safe distance from Dave in case he got any ideas.

“Shhh…” Dave chuckled, moving towards Klaus with a tentative hand as he glanced back at his shut bedroom door. “You’re family is going to think I’m murdering you.”

Dave took another step forward but Klaus lurched the other way and scrambled up on the bed.

“ _BUT WE CAN BE LOUD IN MY OWN HOUSE.”_ Klaus just now realized how freeing it was compared to constantly sneaking around in Vietnam Army Camps. “WE CAN HAVE SUPER LOUD- _AGH_!”

Dave snatched him right off the bed, tearing him from his feet and holding him up against his chest instead, slowly lowering him to the floor.

“Dear God. _This_ is the Klaus I remember.” Dave hugged a struggling Klaus to him, Klaus giving in and going limp against Dave’s body. Instead of squeezing him to death again though, he gently ran his hand up Klaus’s back and under his shirt.

Klaus had a feeling he knew what Dave meant by “convincing” him that he was really here.

And _fuck_ , was he excited. He had never hated this stupid uniform more than right now when it was one of those only barriers between him and Dave’s body. It was interesting that Dave was leading the charge this time. Usually Klaus was the one who jumped right into the hanky panky stuff, barely leaving Dave any time to catch up to his energy.

Klaus was just so bogged down with _shit_ right now that Dave kind of took the reins though.

His frustrating family. Seeing Teddy. Wanting drugs. Wanting Dave to be alive. Afraid that Dave will leave. And something that his mind was too busy to even process these days, but with his sobriety and powers coming in, sometimes there was just a dead-world hum in the back of his brain that he just had to deal with.

_All_ of that fell away with one simple kiss on where his neck met his shoulder and Klaus went,

_Uh-oh._

Because, damn… he wasn’t expecting it to have such a ridiculously strong effect on him. Translation: he was way hornier than he thought.

Or maybe it’s just Dave’s intoxicating impact on him.

For as much as Klaus wanted to just tear off their clothes (specifically his own… to shreds), it didn’t quite go like that. And it was perfect.

A lot of the moments Klaus was having with Dave today ( _holy shit… it’s only been a day?)_ had been very reminiscent to when they first started dating. This particular instance, Klaus was reminded heavily of that first time they had sex. That rainy night hidden away in comfy cave of their own that Dave built up for them, listening to Etta James, slowly dancing, eating Don Juan’s candy which sounds like a euphemism but totally isn’t…

But most notably, it was slow and so emotionally charged that Klaus was almost shocked by how _good_ it was considering how much he enjoyed a nice, rough fuck. The point _was_ that it wasn’t “fucking” though.

Yes, he’s going to be a cheesy romance novel right now and call it “making love”.

_Gag. I know._

Back the _now_ moments (which Klaus had been having trouble focusing on with all the floods of memories from the past), Dave was holding Klaus securely to his body in a way Klaus wasn’t used to. He and Dave had been together for nearly ten months, spending almost every second of their waking day together. He _knew_ the feeling of Dave’s favorite hugging and holding positions.

This was different. This was like Dave was afraid to ever let go of Klaus ever again. And that was okay, honestly. Klaus would be fine and dandy with spending forever locked tightly in Dave’s embrace.

…but then that’d make it hard to have sexy time and Klaus also realized he wanted that- SO. BAD. Ever since coming back from Vietnam, he had totally been turned off even the thought of any type of sexual encounter. The only time the thought of it didn’t freak him out or make him horribly depressed and missing Dave was in an occasional dream or two when he was with David again.

God, he missed being a constantly horny little shit.

All of this considered, just the mere act of his back hitting his mattress sent sparks through Klaus’s core. Dave climbed over him, his hands holding Klaus’s wrists to the sheets beneath him while he straddled his hips.

People always said that coming up from below was never a good angle on anyone, but Klaus begged to differ. Dave looked like a fucking _god_ hovering over him like that, lit by the bedroom’s warm string lights and his hair colored in gold.

“Fuck.” Klaus gritted his teeth against the returning urge to burst out in tears all over again. Dave’s little grin faded and was replaced with concern. “I just missed you.” Klaus quickly assured him, meaning every word. Dave smiled again, this time tinged with sadness. He leaned down until Klaus could feel his soft breath against his lips.

“I missed you too.” He simply returned, but all of these basic words were so saturated with meaning and emotion that Klaus could literally feel it in the air between them.

He soon learned that this made for _excellent_ sex- even with the ghost thing.

There were only a few moments where Dave would be gently kissing down Klaus abdomen or _lower_ if you caught his drift, and suddenly, Klaus would feel Dave’s touch disappear and hear him clear his throat.

“Uh- Klaus?”

Klaus would glance down to see Dave test-poking his side but instead of making contact, his hand would disappear straight through Klaus’s body in a shimmering blue wave.

“Shit.”

“It’s okay.” Dave would always assure him, instantly reading the frustration on Klaus’s face. They’d just have to go back to kissing for a while until they could be sure Dave was nice and corporal.

Klaus would admit- that kind of hurt. He didn’t feel like it was anyone’s fault obviously, but just the fact that it was a reminder of the state Dave was truly in (dead, that is) kind of sucked. Thank Christ it never happened when they were actually having sex because _that_ was fucking _phenomenal._ It was slow and gentle but also mind-fuckingly passionate and filled with so much bottled up emotion that Klaus found himself so lost in ecstasy near the end that Dave had to cover his mouth to keep their “activities” at least somewhat private.

“Shhhhhh, sh, sh…” Dave whispered into Klaus’s ear as Four rode out intense waves of euphoria from underneath Dave, his own body disappearing into the blankets of his bed. He moaned loudly into Dave’s hand and gripped the hell out of Dave’s shoulder blades, his mind so lost in pleasure that his head literally hurt (as he said- it’s been a damn while).

When he was able to tentatively open his eyes again and squint against the lights that somehow grew brighter, Dave was panting and staring down at him with tired, admiring eyes, his hand sliding from Klaus’s mouth to cup the side of his face.

“You’re unbelievably beautiful.” Dave murmured, eying him like Klaus was the most precious of artifacts. Klaus’s heart was already hammering through his chest at an alarming pace, but that made it go just a bit more insane. He smiled and rolled his eyes, pulling Dave down on the bed beside him, the both of them spent but suspended in a shared cloud of pure happiness.

“Do you think that was the first instance of human-ghost sex?” Dave asked, pulling Klaus onto his chest and holding him in his arms. Klaus gladly snuggled into Dave’s neck and took a deep breath with a shrug.

“If it is, that somehow makes it even hotter.”

“Agreed… weirdly.” Dave noted, grazing his fingertips over Klaus’s back.

See? They could still do everything they could before, right? Klaus wouldn’t go into specifics, but everything “functioned” as it should. He had to admit- it was a big relief. Not that he _needed_ to have sex to be hopelessly in love with Dave, but God, it’d break his heart if Dave was forever deprived of that for the rest of his (kind of) life.

A big weight was lifted from Klaus’s chest after that. It might’ve been the fear that sex wouldn’t work at all or maybe it’s just a damn good way to break down emotional walls- either way, Klaus and Dave laid tangled in one another for hours afterward, just examining, re-exploring, and reacquainting themselves with one another. On top of that, Klaus was inexplicably giggly as hell. Sex with Dave always made him giddy, but this was different. This was like he finally was starting to accept that Dave was here and maybe here to stay- he couldn’t stop from being an idiotic, deliriously silly mess.

It didn’t help that Dave thought it was “oh-so-adorable” and kept adding in a tickle here and there to keep him going.

“You’re bein’ crazy.” Dave chuckled, covering Klaus’s mouth and failing to halt his uncontrollable snickers. It just made Klaus bury his head in his pillow and laugh harder.

“I think you cover my mouth a lot.” He realized out loud, the idea making him softly hum a laugh. Dave’s chest rumbled with laughter from underneath Klaus as well.

“Can you blame me? And you do it to me too.”

“That’s like… our thing.” Klaus noted with a goofy smile, climbing on top of Dave and straddling his waist while pressing the palm of his hand against his mouth. He felt Dave smile underneath his skin. “Kinda hot.”

He leaned over Dave and giggled lightly, Dave taking his own hand and covering Klaus’s mouth from above him simultaneously.

“I think that was one of the first time I touched you, period.” Dave’s muffled voice came from behind Klaus’s hand. He was right. Klaus remembered when he lost his briefcase on one of the first days in Vietnam and ran after it alone in the forest. Dave followed.

Even before he really knew him, Dave was taking care of Klaus. Anyway, he vividly remembered Dave covering his mouth that day because even that made him an excited, horny, in-love little puppy dog.

Their faces were only inches from one another, the backs of their hands touching as they secured them over each other’s faces. Klaus giggled again, his sides starting to hurt from his uncontrollable giddiness.

It was a good hurt.

Dave slide his hand from Klaus’s face and Klaus mimicked him until they were free and clear to kiss, Dave gently nipping at Klaus’s bottom lip and making him sigh.

…and then giggle some more. Klaus fell off of Dave’s body and curled into him from his left instead.

“What now, you maniac?” Dave prodded, turning to run his hands through Klaus’s hair with one hand and lock his other arm around his waist.

“We can just… keep going. You don’t get tired right?” Klaus realized with a sparkle in his eye. Dave smiled wide.

“Oh, I feel like I could probably go forever now.” He agreed, pulling Klaus closer to him so that he was forced to wrap a leg around Dave’s waist to get closer. Klaus hummed happily, feeling that desire in his stomach start to build all over again. He thought about it some more- did being a ghost really mean unlimited sex? Would he just never get tired ever again?

Did he need to sleep? Ben never needed to sleep. He kind of just disappeared when he got tired.

“You’re still going to get tired though.” Dave pointed out, running his thumb along Klaus’s bottom lip. Klaus scrunched up his face and shook his head with a small laugh.

“Nuh-uh. Never.”

“Yeah, okay.” Dave smiled in obvious disbelief. “Don’t worry. We can test that theory.”

Klaus smiled wider and suddenly the giggles were back and buried his face in Dave’s shoulder, his abdomen sore from his laughing fits. Dave held him close and rubbed his back.

“What’s so funny, Giggles?”

Klaus didn’t even realize why that nickname hit him hard in the gut at first, but the pieces started to come together as a memory in his mind. Suddenly, things weren’t so funny anymore. Klaus felt his smile fade and his body still in Dave’s arms. He immediately noticed and pulled back to look into Klaus’s eyes.

“Hey. What’s up?” He asked, worried. Klaus swallowed thickly and looked down, taking a deep sigh.

“Nothing. I don’t know. I used to call Teddy ‘Giggles’ in my head before I knew his name.”

Dave smiled sadly.

“That’s a good name for him.”

Klaus chuckled equally sad.

“Yeah… I saw him today.”

“When you went back?”

“Yeah.”

Klaus wanted to say more on the matter, but he didn’t know what there _was_ to say. Teddy was dead. Dave was dead. Probably everyone else from their squad was dead at this point. He bit the inside of his lip before his giggles could turn into more sobs. He did not want to go back to _that_ phase of emotions from earlier, no sir.

“You know in the month between then and now, I would think I saw you guys everywhere. It was torture. I thought I saw you at the convenience mart down the street. I thought I saw Teds at this donut place a couple blocks away. And at the smoke shop. And even on a mission back in 1942. I guess maybe he just has one of those faces, you know?”

Klaus refused to look into Dave’s eyes because if he did, he knew he’d lose it. Like he mentioned, he thought of Teddy every day but he didn’t often address it. Usually, Dave would take up most of his longing thoughts and kind of push everything else to the side. Now that Dave was here, it was making room to grieve others. He still missed Teddy terribly. He still could see his guts slowly spilling warm blood over Klaus’s hands and into pools on the grass.

“Hey.” Dave tried to break Klaus from his dark reminiscing. He had an unexpected excited quality to his voice that made Klaus look up in curiosity. Dave had this twinkle in his eye that he often wore when he had some grand idea. Klaus loved that look. “I have something to show you.”

“Hm?”

“It’s… kind of far. Can we drive?”

“Mm. I don’t have my own car. But I do have a brother that can teleport.”

Dave looked up at the ceiling with eyes of disbelief.

“Of course.” He sarcastically snorted. Klaus watched him process this little tidbit real quick. He wondered how Dave was actually doing with all of this- he imagined it was all a lot. If Klaus were him, he’d probably be freaking the fuck out. Dave wasn’t Klaus though. He was ridiculously grounded and reasonable and flexible. Still, Klaus made a note to really, truly check up on him the next opportunity he saw.

“But I’m mad at him.”

“Can you ask this _oooooone_ favor?” Dave pleaded. “I promise, I won’t disappoint.”

Klaus sighed in resign.

“You never do.”

“That-a-boy.” Dave excitedly kissed Klaus’s forehead and sat up. “Let’s go.”

“ _Now?_ ”

Apparently so because in only fifteen minutes' time, Klaus found himself standing in the hot Florida sun, surrounded by quaint, slightly aging suburban houses with pastel paints. He didn’t appreciate having to go and awkwardly ask Five a favor, but having Dave with him probably helped Five’s decision in saying yes. He didn’t ask questions and thank God for that, because Klaus didn’t have answers. Dave kept this whole thing tight-lipped, those lips in a constant mischievous grin. Klaus didn’t know whether to be ecstatic or slightly terrified.

Five jumped them and then jumped back without a word other than,

“Call me.”

Klaus muttered a thanks but his brother had already disappeared in a flash of blue.

“So insane, the way he does that.” Dave watched the place where Five used to be, his face hardened in confusion and wonder. Klaus wondered if Dave had any idea that his own powers had started coming in full force.

Well, that would be a nice little surprise, wouldn’t it?

Speaking of surprises, Dave took Klaus’s hand and started leading him down the gently crumbling street, looking at the houses in search of something.

Dave suddenly let his hand slip from Klaus’s.

“I forgot people can see me now.”

“It’s okay.” Klaus took Dave’s hand in his again. “This is the future, baby. Gays are running amuck all over the place.”

Dave snickered at his wording and gave Klaus’s hand a happy squeeze.

“Boss.” Dave dug up the old phrase that used to be their little inside joke when Dave used to be “Dictionary Dave”, Klaus’s personal 1968 Vietnam phrase handbook. “This one, pretty sure.”

Dave led Klaus up the driveway of a small but adorably decorated soft, purple house, a basketball hoop out front and toys littered in the front yard. Voices emanated from the backyard that was fenced in with a yellowing-white fence, music wafting through the air.

“Queen.” Dave suddenly said, naming the artist. Klaus listened to ‘Under Pressure’ play, an impressed grin spreading over his face.

“Look at you.”

“I found them in Luther’s stuff.”

“Iconic.”

Weird hearing Dave talk about his siblings in direct interaction and present-tense.

“You mind explaining why we’re spying on this strangely perfect, picturesque family back here like a couple of creeps?” Klaus asked as Dave gazed through a crack in the fence, ducking out of sight but still searching desperately for something. Klaus could see through a woodpecker hole himself, mostly noticing flashes of color as a bunch of kids ran around the place’s backyard, adults seated at picnic tables covered in food. With all of the cars parked outside, he guessed it was some kind of family gathering. He never got those. He wondered what those were like.

His own family gatherings used to just end in Allison storming out, or Diego and Luther fighting, or with Klaus getting so high that Diego had to quite literally drag him home.

“Alright, c’mere.”

Dave grabbed Klaus by the shoulders and positioned him right where he used to stand, positioning his face by the crack and muttering quietly into Klaus’s ear.

“See that guy? In the pink polo? Playing with the kids?”

Klaus squinted at the older African-American dude in a wheelchair with graying hair and a big goofy smile.

His heart stopped.

This couldn’t- This couldn’t possibly be what he thought.

This was a cruel trick if this wasn’t _exactly_ what Klaus thought it was.

“But-“ Klaus heard himself murmur in disbelief, his eyes hungry for another angle of this guy. The forces of the universe answered and the guy maneuvered his wheelchair to go pick up a tennis ball from the grass. He chucked it and laughed as a dog and six young kids raced one other for it.

“I-“ Klaus was just absolutely speechless. He backed up from the fence, accidentally stumbling into Dave, his hands starting to shake. He could see Dave’s big, stupid grin out of the corner of his eye, telling him that this might be real- this might just be what his gut was begging to be true.

That was motherfucking Teddy, fifty years older. Fifty years older and rocking it, he might add. If the sight of him wasn’t enough for Klaus to believe it, his achingly familiar laugh projected through the hot air and shot knives into Klaus’s core.

And that was it. Klaus felt heat spill down his fast and his breath hitched in his throat. Dave was instantly wrapped around him, suddenly overcome with worry.

“Oh, no, no, no… I'm sorry. I’m not freaking you out _too_ much am I?”

“I- I don’t-“

Dave just held him close to his chest.

“I couldn’t believe it either.”

“How did you- And how did he- I- I watched-“

“I moseyed around this reunion for the remainder of our platoon one year. Donnie was there. Sarge was there. Teddy… he was there too. If I still had a working heart, it would’ve stopped right there.” Dave reminisced, kissing Klaus’s head comfortingly. “I don’t know how. I wasn’t strong enough to stick around. But somehow he made it out of there alive.”

“What the fuck?” Klaus felt his breath hitch in his stomach again, his breaths panicked and shaky.

“Shhhh…” Dave kissed his head again, releasing Klaus to check through the fence and make sure they weren’t heard. Klaus couldn’t imagine trying to explain this one if Teddy was ever to catch them out here spying, fifty years later, alive (well, not Dave) and still young.

Teddy. He was thinking about Teddy in present tense. 

_What the fuck. What the fuck. What the fuck. What the fuck._

“I don’t know- I don’t know what to think.” Klaus admitted, afraid that if he peeked again, his mind would fucking explode.

He watched him die. He _felt_ him die. He saw the life slowly flee from his dark brown eyes and the color gray to slate all across his skin.

Teddy was dead. That was never something to be contended in his mind. It was just a terrible fact.

“You okay?” Dave whispered, helping Klaus realize that he had just been standing there thinking for quite a long time now. “I didn’t mean to uproot your whole world. I-“

“No. This is… This isn’t anything but good. Really good.” Klaus finally started to let himself realize. He fell into Dave’s chest and squeezed him as tightly as his arms would allow. “Thank you.”

Dave hummed happily.

“I love making you happy.”

“This is next level.”

“I didn’t do it. I’m just the messenger.” Dave shrugged.

“I- Holy shit, I just… I would’ve never known.”

“I’m sure you-“

“Can I help you boys?”

Klaus and Dave froze. Klaus gripped Dave’s shirt with a deathly tight hold. Dave’s eyes went wide and his lips pressed into a tight line.

The winner of the quietest fence gates goes to Teddy, that’s for sure. In their stupor of pure relief and happiness, they hadn’t realized that the only thing separating them from their very alive and well old friend had swung wide open.

Who other than that same friend to be sitting in its opening?

Fuck. 

_Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck._

Five is going to fucking kill the shit out of him.

Maybe they could run. Maybe Teddy hadn't noticed. After all, who would immediately guess that the strange visitors in their driveway were time-frozen ghosts of the past?

“You fellas… Wait…” Teddy stopped midsentence and all of Klaus’s hope for keeping their identity shrouded flew out the window. He still refused to look at Teddy straight on, afraid he’d give the old man a heart attack.

He realized it might be too late for that. Klaus sighed.

“Well, shit.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I thought I saw you in the battleship  
> But it was only a look alike  
> he was nothing but a vision trick  
> Under the warning light  
> he was close, close enough to be your ghost  
> But my chances turned to toast  
> When I asked him if I could call him your name
> 
> Tell me where's your hiding place  
> I'm worried I'll forget your face  
> And I've asked everyone  
> I'm beginning to think I imagined you all along
> 
> NEXT UP: The boys have some explaining to do to an old friend but are interrupted by trouble back at the Academy. The siblings finally get some quality time to get to know Dave.


	8. Momentary Bliss

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dave, Klaus, and Teddy catch up. Klaus starts to wonder about Dave's happiness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is only half the chapter I expected to write for Ch. 8, but the rest will come a lot sooner! I just felt bad for making everyone wait so long! Enjoy

It took a hot second for Teddy to ground himself, but honestly, not nearly as much as Klaus would’ve excepted from someone who was seeing “dead” people from the past.

He laughed. He scoffed. He laughed again. Coughed some. Tried to say something…

…laughed some more.

Meanwhile, Klaus and Dave just stared, frozen and completely unsure of what to do next. Admittedly, Four was a little afraid they’d give the guy a heart attack.

“Oh, God. We’re gonna kill him.” Klaus muttered, watching Teddy heel over in laughter. The guy was pulling some attention from his family behind him, a few glancing over with confused looks.

“Er… Teddy…” Klaus tried to interrupt his old friend’s hysteretic frenzy. It felt insane to say his name- to feel those syllables on his tongue again and be using them to address Teddy in present-tense. He swore, if he woke up and realized this past two months had been a dream, that’d make much more reasonable sense than all that had happened lately. He’d believe it much more than seeing a 70-year-old Teddy before him right now. “…should we… like…”

“, move somewhere a little more quiet?” Dave finished for Klaus, putting a hand on his arm comfortingly. Teddy watched them interact with each other, a giant, stupid grin across his face. Klaus swore he saw water line his eyes for a moment before he broke his trance and sighed.

“Ohhhhh, man… Yeah. Yeah.” He said, rolling himself to his front porch, taking the ramsp up to the door. “Uh… sit. I think.” He said, a small giggle of disbelief ghosting the end of his sentence. Klaus glanced at Dave and sat down on the swinging chair, Dave next to him.

They all kind of just stared at each other for a while, Klaus’s hand clasping over Dave’s. He was so excited and nervous (mostly that this whole accidental reveal would fuck his family’s situation with the Commission further), that he just _had_ to _mangle_ something. Dave’s hand was just the most convenient thing around in the moment.

“Ow, ow… God, I can still feel pain, Dummie.” Dave winced away, captive and helpless against Klaus’s grasp.

“Shut up.”

“You shut up.”

“Good one.”

“Holy shit. It _is_ you guys.” Teddy scoffed in disbelief as Klaus and Dave got distracted by their own squabbles.

Side note- it felt inexplicably _amazing_ to bicker with Dave again. For Klaus, it meant that wall of uncertainty between them was slowly dissolving and letting things return to some kind of normal.

“Ahhh…” Teddy sighed, head falling back against his wheelchair. “Gina was right. I’m a downright senile old motherfucker now, ain’t I?”

“Teddy, I gotta say. We’re kind of just surprised as you are.”

“ _JUST_ as surprised? Really? I ain’t some weird non-aging demigod, Katz.” Teddy shook his head in remaining disbelief. A sad smile broke across his face. “Goddamn. It feels good to say your name, man.”

Dave smiled too and it instantly affected Klaus, the three of them giddy idiots on a porch somewhere in the deep South.

“So… what… you like… spirits, or some shit?”

“Yeah, kinda.”

“No.”

Klaus and Dave said at the same time. Teddy narrowed his eyes and waited for them to sort through their answer. Klaus and Dave looked at each other like they were trying to challenge the other to pick up the slack and explain. Finally, Klaus hesitantly jumped in.

“Er… Teddy… Uh- Why don’t you tell us your story first, yeah? I’ll figure out how to spit all this out in the meantime.”

Teddy frowned. Then smiled. Then laughed. Then shook his head.

“Okay, Boots.”

The name sent a shockwave of remorse through Klaus’s chest, but he let it dissipate. He didn’t need to be saddened by the sound of Teddy calling him his Viet-name. He was right here in front of him, alive and thriving.

“Well, let’s see. Where I saw you last, I was in pretty bad shape, huh?”

“I’d fucking say so, yeah.”

“Thought I was dead.”

“So the fuck did I.” Klaus couldn’t help himself, trying to stress how much it had affected him. Whatever happened to Teddy after he assumed him dead, Klaus prayed he didn’t assume that his squad friends didn’t care or abandoned him.

“Yeah, I was damn close, tell you what. Then the world went up in fire… remember that?”

Klaus wordlessly nodded, his hand squeezing Dave’s subconsciously through the suspense of Teddy’s story.

“Well I remember hands gripping my vest. I was dragged across the ground… I just kept thinkin’ that if this ain’t the lord’s hand then I want no part of this. Let me die. You know?”

“Yeah.” Klaus barely whispered, his throat tight with the memory of Teddy’s terrible state at the time.

So, he was never really dead?

Holy crap- he was never really dead.

Something about that didn’t sit right with Klaus. He couldn’t help but feel like he should’ve done more. He shouldn’t have let Al drag him away from the scene. He should’ve gotten what he _thought_ was just Teddy’s body the hell out of there.

“I woke up in this lil’ hut. Not much in there. Me. The bed. And one lady poking with me shit. Didn’t know ‘til later, she was just tending to my wounds. Freaked out on her a bit. Through broken English on her part, _extremely_ broken Vietnamese on mine, I found out that her and her family had dragged me out in hopes to loot me of anything they could use. Didn’t know until they got me inside that I was still breathin’. They were good people. They helped me get healthy again. Anyway… yada, yada. Couldn’t go searching for a base or anything because my spine was shit. Hence the sweet ride.” Teddy looked down at his chair. He took a big sigh. ”Months later, a different squad blew through. They found me, took me back to a real medical center, and that’s where I met my wife, Gina. She was my nurse. Isn’t that crazy? Sexy, right?” Teddy cocked a graying eyebrow, specifically towards Klaus who smirked.

“Nice, Teds.”

“She _is_ a godsend though, tell you what. Deserves a medal for all my shit she deals with. Had kids. Five. Had even more grandkids. 17. Aaaaaand, here I am. Gettin’ along just alright.”

Klaus caught himself and Dave staring ridiculously fondly at Teddy as he finished his quicker-than-quick life recap. He even reminded himself to close his slightly ajar mouth, his eyes blinking and feeling the sting of dryness. He hadn’t realized how captivated he was- holding onto every word that Teddy said just _praying_ that he lived the life he always knew he deserved.

From what it seemed like on the outside, he sure as hell did.

What could he say? Klaus’s heart was damn full.

“So… Once y’all are done just starin’, care to explain how I said goodbye to Katz’ dead body in his own damned casket? I mean… Heh… I saw that shit buried 6 feet under. And-“

Teddy went to playfully slap Dave in the shoulder and that’s where everything kind of fell apart in terms of Klaus’s control over his powers. Teddy’s hand went straight through with a blue sheen. He yelped.

“Okay, okay; we can-“

“THIS SOME KIND OF FANCY SCY-FY STAR WARS SHIT?”

“Star Wars?” Dave muttered with a frown.

“Look, Teddy- I- Uh- Well-“ Klaus struggled to get more than one cohesive syllable out at a time. All the while, he barely noticed Teddy staring at him with the smallest, mischievous grin on his face- like he just remembered the juiciest of secrets.

“This about the Umbrella Academy?”

Klaus stopped in his tracks.

_Hold on. Back up. Back the fuck up._

“What?”

“The… Umbrella Academy… That’s what it’s called, right?”

“I- Yeah.”

“I _knew_ it.” Teddy slapped his hands together and erupted into hearty chuckles, small wheezes in between. Sometimes if you listened close enough, Klaus could pretend he was just listening to Teddy’s 19-year-old giggles back in the jungles- ‘round the campfire after a long day of trekking through the mud.

“You didn’t know shit.” Klaus found himself teasing, rolling his eyes but knowing that Teddy obviously caught on to _something_. How else would he know about the Academy?

“I did! I did!” Teddy cackled more. “You know, I didn’t say nothin’ to Gina because she already thinks I’m cracked out more than not, but my youngest… my youngest son was into this group of super-kids. A group of gifted that weren’t like no one we’d ever seen before. One of ‘em named Klaus Hargreeves.”

Klaus let that set in before a smile broke across his face. He glanced at Dave who cocked an eyebrow at him as if to say, ‘Wow, look at you, big fancy boyfriend in his big fancy superhero gang’.

“Thought it was just a damned coin-ki-dink until I saw a story later in life- decades later. It was a kind of ‘Where are they now’ pieces, you know?”

Klaus felt his heart drop. _Uh-oh_. He knew exactly which article Teddy was talking about.

“Uh…”

“Had all y’alls pictures in there. Well… you’re was blurry and outside a nightclub since you dipped out of the public eye and were mostly on the run from underpaid dealers or whatever the article said-“

“EH-EH-EH-EH!” Klaus tried to mow over Teddy’s reminiscing, slapping at Teddy’s shoulder to shut him up.

“Can’t hit a man in a chair, Boots! Haven’t you heard?”

“Shut it. Some people here haven’t heard of all of my escapades.”

The fact that Teddy always had some sneaking suspicion that something _may_ have been up with Klaus’s whole storyline and earlier disappearance made everything else a little easier to explain. When Klaus used the Umbrella Academy as a backboard to branch off into smaller explanations, Teddy seemed to follow right along like he wasn’t afraid to accept anything anymore.

Klaus had a striking realization in the midst of his story about time traveling back to 2019- Teddy was wise. This was no longer the inexperienced, clumsy, unfocused kid that Klaus had always known. This was a man that had seen and lived a lot- more than Klaus had at this point. The thought of it was throwing Klaus’s mind for a loop.

“So Dave is here with us now because of your Umbrella Academy power?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m sorry.”

Klaus wasn’t really expecting that response and as a result, it hit him hard. He gritted his teeth against the rising pressure in his throat. Immediately, he felt a hand slip into his own and squeeze comfortingly. Klaus cleared his throat and glanced over to Dave who ran his thumb along the back of Klaus’s hand. At least his sudden spike in emotional turmoil made Dave tactile again.

“It’s been different.” Dave shook Klaus’s hand gently in his own, taking over the mantle of responding to Teddy.

“So what’s y’alls plan now?”

“Uh…” Dave glanced at Klaus who just gave him wide eyes back.

_Good fucking question, Teds._

“Don’t know.” Dave finally uttered, giving Teddy a vague shrug. Teddy nodded, surveying them both with experienced, bright eyes. He sighed and cleared his throat, reaching forward and clapping Klaus on the shoulder.

“Come eat with us.”

“Oh, I… I mean, Teds. How do we explain-“

“No explanation needed. They love new folks. They’ll smother you if you’re not careful.” Teddy giggled, already making his way down the ramp, not letting them even respond and assuming they’d follow. Dave cocked his head at Klaus and pouted with the largest puppy-dog eyes…

“Hey. That’s my trademark.”

“It’ll be fun. Just a bit?”

“Not good with families.”

“We just laid a lot on Teddy. Least we could do is-“

“Boots! Katz! Di di mau!”

Dave shot a smile at Klaus as if to say, ‘We don’t really have a choice’ and Klaus sighed. Hand in hand, they followed while Teddy talked about the few Vietnam reunion meetings he attended until they started dwindling.

“Sarge was at a couple. He was in a bad way after the war man, but he pulled himself up out of that shit and focused on bein’ a family man. That’s what he told me anyway. He passed just last year though. Maybe two. Peacefully. His third wife and kids right there with him.”

“Oh.” Was all Klaus could think to say. He was having a hard time grasping that all of their friends went on to live full lives while they were in their own time-warp, ghosty limbo. Klaus and Dave’s lives were (hopefully) just getting started together. Teddy and Sarge on the other hand, had a good amount of rotations around the sun under their belt.

Teddy was right about one thing- his family seemed to love “new” people. Klaus could barely keep up with amount of voices asking if he wanted pasta or a drink or a jacket or yada yada yada. It was overwhelming but in a nice way, he guessed. Just… different.

Before they could barely sit down, a football came flying towards their place in the middle of Teddy’s backyard tables. Dave instantly met the ball with his hand like an instinctual reflex took over his body before anyone’s mind could comprehend.

_Hot._

Klaus raised an eyebrow at him, smiling wider still at Dave’s humble shrug. He was instantly pulled into the kids’ game, the group of little-Teddies not really giving him a choice in the matter. Dave gave Klaus’s shoulder a squeeze before he bounded off into the yard to throw the ball around with Teddy’s grandkids.

“Weird.”

Teddy muttered from beside Klaus. He glanced over to see that Teddy too was just watching Dave run around the backyard, able to touch and throw a ball and get tackled by the yard of little athletes.

“Tell me about it.” Klaus murmured, constantly hoping that his powers didn’t waver and totally out Dave as a more-or-less ethereal being right here in front of this nice family picnic.

“Never thought I’d see you two in a setting like this- no smoke, no bombs, no fire…”

“Everytime I look at him I still feel like I’m being mindfucked… Oh. I mean… Mind…screwed?” Klaus sloppily tried to cover up his language with a quick look around the table at the smaller kids. Teddy wheezed in laughter and slapped the table.

“Oh, I missed you, Boots.”

Klaus smiled and broke his gaze from his beautiful ghostie and turned to watch his aged friend with the heaviest of hearts. For what felt like the millionth time today, Klaus could feel his throat start to close painfully.

“Yeah. Me too, Teds.”

“Dad… you gonna introduce us?” A, dare Klaus say, _hot_ middle-aged man asked from across the table. Was it wrong to be so damn attracted to his friend’s son?

Anyway, Teddy went into this whole narrative about how Klaus was the son of someone he served with and proceeded to talk about this “Boots” as if he was Klaus’s dad rather than him in the flesh. Klaus was enjoying Teddy’s old stories about them from the side, bittersweetly reminiscing to a whole family of Teddy-offspring, but his attention became diverted when he started watching Dave again.

The kids loved him, first of all. Klaus had always had the feeling that Dave was good with kids- he almost said just as much whenever he talked about Lizzie during her younger years. Plus, he wanted to teach music to kids, so… pretty good indicator.

Klaus felt his next thoughts hit him in the feels faster than the head. A pang of pain rippled through his chest as he realized that all the dreams that he and Dave had spoken about before Dave died… he may never get to do them.

What was the end game here? Was Dave’s life now just following Klaus around to the ends of the Earth? While that sounded _great_ to him, Klaus could only think of all the potential Dave had had in his past life- the potential that Klaus could only dream of having. He wanted music, he wanted travel…

He wanted a _family_.

Can you raise a family as a barely-corporal ghost?

Dave met Klaus’s eyes in the moment. He flashed him a genuinely bright, content smile before a flying 7-year-old lookin’ thing jumped up onto his back and pulled him down to the grass with the help of a couple little girls that wrapped themselves around Dave’s legs. He grunted playfully and scrambled up to chase the kids around the yard.

Klaus bit his lip. He _looked_ happy, but this was momentary bliss. Could Dave exist happily as a ghost by Klaus’s side _forever_?

Just then, right in the middle of Teddy’s story about their night on the town in Saigon no less, a flash of blue split the bare air open and a 13-year-old prick fell straight onto the middle of the picnic table, food splattering all over his Academy uniform. Klaus pressed his lips into a thin line and stared with wide eyes at Five crumpled all over everyone’s picnic. He groaned and pushed himself up, stumbling off of the table and into the grass.

The whole yard went silent with shock. All eyes were on Five as he huffed and brushed some potato salad off of his suit jacket.

“Damnit…” He muttered angrily under his breath before flipping his hair out of his eyes and finding Number Four among the otherwise normal family. “Klaus. You’ve gotta come home. Now.”

Klaus glanced around at the mortified party and rubbed his eyes tiredly with his hands.

“Jesus, Five…”

After some quick, awkward, stuttering apologies to Teddy and his family who _still_ didn’t seem capable of uttering a word, Dave and Klaus walked out of the backyard with Five and dissipated into his blue swirl of space-time-continuum interruption and left behind Teddy’s family with a picnic they’d never forget.

* * *

_We could do so much better than this_   
_Emotionally in fences and momentary bliss_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next Up: Dave is caught up on the music and fashion that he's missed... Klaus-style. When the family is unable to leave the house, they're stuck inside and forced to have some bonding time with both Klaus and Dave alike. 
> 
> End of July, here we come! Hoping for a trailer soon!


	9. Love Song

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Klaus catches Dave up on 50 years. The rest of the family gets to meet Dave.

“Full-on family assault” is the phrase that Five used to describe what was happening with the Academy currently- the reason for his rude, unforgettable intrusion on top of a nice, suburban family’s cookout.

When Luther and Allison were out buying stuff for Claire’s birthday, they were almost sniped dead on the spot in the Mall’s parking garage. When Diego was leaving the boxing ring through the back alleyway towards his car, he was jumped by three guys in suits (not one of them succeeding in taking Di down, by the way). Five and Vanya were out grabbing a coffee to-go and were followed the whole way home until Five led them on an egregious car chase, leading to a massive gridlock going into the city.

“So, what does this mean?” Klaus asked after they had flashed back inside the Academy’s walls. “The commission is losing so they’re throwing a tantrum and just resorting to killing us straight-up?”

“That’s exactly what it means.” Five muttered, immediately going to the bar before thinking against it. Klaus couldn’t tell if it was on his own accord or if his brother was trying save-face when Klaus was staying clean of substance. “They’re scared. They’re threatened. They don’t mean to mess around anymore. We’ve gotta take it to the next step too.”

“What does that even- Five?” Klaus called after his brother who was already half-way out the room.

“Some of us have actual important matters to attend to!” Five shot back as he ascended the stairs like a lil’ man with a plan. Klaus huffed and rolled his eyes. “And no leaving the Academy! Not until we have a game plan.”

“Fan-flippin-tastic.” Klaus muttered, slumping against Dave so that he instinctively wrapped his arms around his torso.

What a goddamn day. Not to mention, Klaus had lived much _over_ a day with their trip to Vietnam earlier. Needless to say, he was downright pooped and barely conscious by the time he and Dave reached his room. All of the adrenaline from getting Dave back was slowly making way for the true exhaustion that plagued his body.

“No, no, no… C’mon…” Dave grunted, pulling Klaus’s body further on the bed after he collapsed half on top and resorted to staying that way. Klaus groaned and crawled fully into bed and letting Dave’s encircle him in his arms. He felt Dave’s breath on his forehead and the steady rise and fall of his chest against Klaus’s own.

A moment went by where Klaus was fully prepared to fall into a deep slumber for who-knows-how-long, but something immediately sparked the fuel inside him once again: Fear.

Klaus blinked himself totally awake as thoughts came rushing into his head, pulling at his heart until it felt like it was trying to beat its way out of a cage. Klaus swallowed thickly and meditated on this sudden rush of anxiety before forcing himself to say it out loud.

“I can’t.”

“Hmm?” Dave sleepily asked from above him, his hand rubbing Klaus’s back comfortingly. Klaus wondered if Dave planned on just lying there with him all night. After all, ghosts didn’t need sleep. Ben always kind of just “dissipated” and “recharged”, or he’d pretend to sleep next to Klaus and explain that it just felt good to lie still and close his eyes for a few hours.

“Sleep.”

“You were nearly passed out just a second ago. What happened?” Dave chuckled lightly, kissing Klaus’s forehead. It was all Four needed to get a little boost of confidence in letting Dave into his mind a bit more.

“I’m just…” Klaus sighed dramatically and wiggled in Dave’s arms until he could look up into his eyes. As soon as their irises connected, Klaus felt a chill run down his spine and goosebumps erupted all over his body.

 _Hot. Hot. Hot. Cute. Adorable. Beautiful. FOCUS._ Klaus had to break himself from his adoring trance directed at his sexy-as-hell boyfriend.

“Klaus-“

“What if you’re not here when I wake up? You know… for like, whatever reason.”

“Well-“ 

“Or what if… What if we’ve got limited time or-“

“Hey.” Klaus felt Dave’s hand gently trip his chin and lift his eyes more directly towards his own. “You trust me?”

Klaus raised an eyebrow and muttered wistfully through his clenched jaw.

“Pshyah… Of course…”

“Then I _promise-_ I’ll be right here when you wake up.” Dave leaned in and pressed his lips against Klaus’s, surprising him with the taste of Dave- something he was ridiculously grateful for now since before, he wasn’t quite sure he’d ever be able to experience it again with the ghostliness and all.

“You betta.” Klaus answered in his best Jersey accent, snuggling back up to Dave and trying to internalize his words. He remembered nothing else after that- nothing until the sounds of gunshots and distant bombs awoke him, panting in fear.

“Dave?” Klaus immediately called out when he woke in a cold sweat, his heart beating out of his chest and his hands shaking violently. He scrambled up to sit with his back pressed against the wall, his knees pulled up to his chest. Klaus’s eyes surveyed the room quickly to find just what he feared the most- nothing. “ _Dave!_ ”

The sound of choppers wouldn’t stop beating violently in his ears- or maybe that was the beating of his own heart. The fact that he couldn’t tell the two apart was sending Klaus straight into a panic. He could hear himself hyperventilating, but it didn’t feel like him. Klaus felt like he was having some fucked up out-of-body experience where he was watching himself flip the fuck out but wasn’t able to do anything about it.

“Hey, hey, woah…” A familiar voice magically came into existence right next to Klaus, Dave appearing out of nowhere and immediately enveloping him in his grasp. His heart finally stopped freaking out and dropped to a somewhat-acceptable pace.

“Asshole, don’t _do_ that.” Klaus gripped onto Dave’s arm like a lifeline, his nails digging into his skin.

“Sorry, sorry… You looked like you could sleep through a whole day if I let you.” Dave apologized, kissing Klaus’s temple and hugging him close while his panic subsided. Klaus was at the point where he just needed to close his eyes and focus on regulating his breathing, forcing the sounds of Vietnam out of his head. “I’m here. We’re good.” Dave assured him, rubbing Klaus’s back and allowing him time to calm himself. “We’re good.”

Some time went by before Klaus would consider his breathing “normal” again, his hands finally stilling and his mind relaxing. Dave eventually spoke up, his breath warm against Klaus’s forehead.

“I was just roaming the block a bit. It was going well until I started to feel myself visually fading a bit. Think I scared the shit out of a sign spinner and almost caused a massive car crash.”

Klaus snorted and allowed himself to smile a bit at the thought of Dave just randomly disappearing from normal-eye view on the street and causing a whole scene.

“Oops.” Dave shrugged, grazing his fingertips over Klaus’s arm. “Anyway, good morning.”

“What do you wanna do today?” Klaus murmured tiredly into Dave’s shirt.

“Nothing until we get you breakfast.”

Klaus huffed.

“I’m serious, Klaus. No more of this neglecting yourself business.”

“Mm. My Mom does make bomb-ass crepes.”

“There ya go.”

Klaus was sure that with their new home-lock-down order from Five, he and Dave were bound to be running into his siblings constantly. That wasn’t really the case though, and Klaus was okay with that. Today was the day he decided to catch Dave up on all he had missed in fifty years, starting with _ABBA_.

“Sit your cute booty down right here.” Klaus instructed, lightly shoving Dave onto the large couch in the middle of the Academy’s ornate living room. With that, he took off upstairs, grabbing armfuls of Luther’s record player/records, DVDs, books, and a mixture of both his and (mostly) Allison’s clothes. Needless to say, it took Klaus a good number of trips to unearth so much shit from their various places around the house just to pile it all up in the center of the living room.

“You’re getting a full rundown, starring moi.” Klaus grunted when he finally tossed the last heap of clothes onto the adjacent couch from Dave who just stared at him with an amused grin. “Buckle up, buttercup. We start with… _ABBA_.”

Klaus gingerly touched the needle to the ABBA record and smiled mischievously as “Mamma Mia” blasted through the house.

“Abba: Also used in the hit musical, Mamma Mia which we will _definitely_ be watching sometime very soon. Iconic. And Meryl Streep? Ugh. Mwuah.” Klaus gave the chef’s kiss to Dave who chuckled from the couch where he watched Klaus struggle to get changed behind one of the pillars at the edge of the room. He emerged in Allison’s flare jeans mixed with his own insanely patterned button-down shirt, the collar flipped outwards.

“70’s fashion, right? Hippies. Tye-dye. Bell bottoms. You flare your collar outwards like a douche.” Klaus ran back in front of the couch to show Dave. He flipped on large, round sunglasses that he’d actually consider his current favorites and held up the peace sign. “Big post-war feels. Also- moon landing. Remember when I told you about that? 1969. Also Woodstock! Oh, David… Woodstock would be your _shit_.”

Dave raised an eyebrow and nodded, clearly more interested in the way Klaus’s shirt was unbuttoned so low that it almost revealed halfway down his chest. Klaus felt the urge to jump Dave, the way he was gazing at Klaus up and down smugly like that. Dave reached forward and tried to pull Klaus in by his hips, but Klaus wiggled out of his grasp and ran away to the heap of clothes once more.

“Nuh-uh. Look, don’t touch, honey.” He jokingly teased, knowing full-well that if Dave pulled him in and tempted him with his sexy prowess, Klaus would give up on his whole “catching Dave up” endeavor and resort to a day full of hot, ghost sex instead.

…Which sounded damn good, but if he didn’t do this now, Klaus was sure he’d never find the motivation again. 

Dave rolled his eyes and laughed.

“Fine. Fine. Keep going.”

And so, Klaus did. He breezed through all kinds of bands via Luther’s record player, sometimes accompanying them with new outfits to go along with the period.

“Queen. Freddie Mercury. Our lord and savior.”

“I like Queen.”

“I knew you would.” Klaus agreed, switching the records again. “Led Zeppelin. The love child of Yardbirds, which, obviously you know.”

“I _love_ Led Zeppelin.”

“I knew you’d be a slut for Zeppelin too.” Klaus agreed. “And _so_ much more _Doors_. Great for drugs.”

At that point, Dave gave him a little cock of the head which Klaus immediately responded to.

“Not anymore! But Doors and drugs are like peanut butter and jelly. Pink Floyd too. Oh, Dave. You’ll love Pink Floyd.”

Klaus did try to mix in some genuine timeline events from around the world too: JFK being assassinated. The fall of the Berlin Wall. Civil Rights. Gay Marriage. Aides…. But God _forbid_ he bring up,

“Oh, and the Beatles broke up after _many_ disagreements and fights and stuff… 1970 I think.”

At that point, Dave’s eyes kind of just glazed over and Klaus let his shoulders sag.

“Oh noooo. No, Dave. Don’t be upset!”

Dave cleared his throat and looked away. Klaus recognized the sound of his voice being strained.

“I’m… not.” Dave clearly lied. Klaus tried to keep his giggling to a minimum as he went to wrap his arms around Dave’s neck, comforting him and teasing him for his Beatles-mania-obsession all at once.

Klaus went on to talk about Journey, Black Sabbath, David Bowie, Prince… He gravitated towards 80’s fashion, flaunting one of Allison’s pink suit jackets with shoulder pads and accompanying them with his own harem pants that clearly didn’t match, but that was beside the point.

“Shoulder pads! Sequins! Tassels! Oversized sunglasses! Harem pants! Neons! HUGE hair!” Klaus yelled over the record player blasting Bon Jovi. He did a little spin for Dave who laughed and gave his best, polite, golf clap like a judge surveying a high-end fashion show. Klaus continued.

“Michael Jackson: huge… I mean, _HUGE_ staple. Also, controversial currently, but I can’t possibly go into that now.”

“Bruce Springsteen: America. That’s all you gotta know. Am’rica.” Klaus gave a hearty, manly, patriotic grunt.

“90s: Edge, grunge, hip to be hip, you know? Late 90s was when I just started _dripping_ with angst.” Klaus called over from where he struggled to pull one of Allison’s denim overall dresses over his head, over a black shirt with bold print throughout.

“Green Day. Nirvana. Radio Head. Bitch, you _know_ I _had_ to have been an edgy child.” Klaus was now having his own fun reminiscing to his pre-teen days.

“Beastie Boys- an acquired taste.” Klaus made sure to mention and he was right- Dave called it “Just plain noise” which Klaus relentlessly teased him about afterwards, calling it “a truly, old-man kind of thing to say”.

“Lou Reed. Nickelback. Oh… U2 is good.” Klaus put their “best hits” record on, glancing over to make sure Dave was still listening. Only he would be having this much fun just watching Klaus dance around like an idiot and play dress up while listening to endless music. “U2 did a great half-time show during the super bowl. I was 13… it was the year that 9/11 happened which… also, your birthday. Crazy… Klaus trailed off before he was hit with another wave of energy. “Okay! 2000s! A new millennium! Muse, Snoop Dog, My Chemical Romance…”

Sunnies. Distasteful headband around his forehead. Tank top over long sleeves. Emo. Klaus tried to pull out all the stops for the early 2000s- after all, those were his teens. These years _made_ Klaus- drugs, angst and all.

“Yeah… I was all up in this.” Klaus muttered while he kneeled over Dave on the couch, carefully applying eyeliner up against his beautiful boyfriend’s lashes. Dave smiled wide and amused, but he stayed still and let Klaus do his thing.

“This where the eyeliner fad started for you?”

“Probably.” Klaus shrugged, using his finger to blend some of the dark makeup around Dave’s eyes. That was about when Klaus’s own eyes were attracted to a white page wedged half under Dave’s thigh where he sat. Klaus frowned and leaned back to see what it was. “Oh. My. God. Have you been taking _notes_?”

Dave rolled his eyes.

“I mean… yeaaaaah. How else am I supposed to memorize all of this?”

Klaus beamed and met Dave’s newly-lined eyes, a burst of laughter escaping his lips. Dave was clearly about to defend his nerdiness, but Klaus attacked his lips before he could, straddling his prey and kissing him deeply. Dave’s hands roamed up and under Klaus’s shirt, skimming against the skin of his back and pulling him in closer. When Klaus finally pulled back out of breath, he groaned pressed his forehead to Dave’s.

“So turned on by geek-Dave.”

“Stuff it.” Dave tased him in the side and sent Klaus into defensive giggles.

“ _UGH_.” Klaus threw his head back and groaned, reminiscing about all things ‘geek-Dave’. “Your organization. Your random facts. Your impeccable handwriting. When you talk about cars. Hawwwwwt.” Klaus teased but also meant every word- he _did_ live for all the ways Dave was so incredibly different from him.

Rather than answer verbally, Dave secured a hand at the back of Klaus’s neck and pulled him in for another kiss, his tongue gently grazing Klaus’s lips until Klaus snapped out of his own horny haze.

“ _David_.” Klaus berated. “You know I’ll fuck you right on this couch if you don’t stop me.”

“Doesn’t seem like such a bad thing.”

“Damn, feeling ballsy today, huh?” Klaus nipped at Dave’s bottom lip and wrapped his arms around his neck while Dave moved a hand to Klaus’s stomach, tracing up his abdomen underneath his shirt and sending shivers throughout Klaus’s body.

“So, tell me about the 2000s.”

“Mmm… Eminem. Mom’s spaghetti…” Klaus trailed off, only able to focus on the way Dave was exploring the muscles over his abdomen.

“That’s it?”

“All you gotta know.” Klaus chuckled in teasing agreement. He did try to go into the “greats” like Beyoncé and Lady Gaga, but Klaus was exhausted at this point and gave up after informing Dave about the “holy trinity of _Грустная Сука”_ which is simply Russian for “sad bitch”: Lorde, Sia, and Lan Del Rey.

“Total ho for some Lana.” Klaus muttered into Dave’s shoulder as they slowed danced to a song quite literally just called ‘Love Song’. Dave’s hand gently rubbed Klaus’s back through his new early 2000s outfit- a black tank over a tight, long-sleeved mesh shirt and a jean mini-skirt that _must’ve_ been from Allison’s closet all the way back in the true early millennium. Klaus had fastened his headband over Dave’s forehead instead, also making him wear a _terribly_ , busy patterned button up that honestly shouldn’t fit in _any_ time period.

A building thunderstorm hummed outside, He was in bliss. Klaus was purely and totally _happy_. He started to think that maybe he and Dave could do this new ghost-relationship. Hell, he even forgot Dave _was_ a ghost for a hot second. The realization hitting him all over again was kind of a bummer, but Klaus pushed himself to address it rather than hide.

“I haven’t even asked how _you_ feel about all of this.” Klaus nudged Dave in his side, prompting an answer.

“About what?”

“I don’t know… everything. What happened in Vietnam. I mean, _dying_. Being here in the future. That’s a lot to take in.”

Klaus heard Dave open his mouth to answer but that was the exact moment that a new voice joined the fold, interrupting their contented slow-dance that apparently wasn’t as private as they previously believed.

“Um…” The voice said, stopping Klaus and Dave in their tracks. Klaus glanced behind Dave’s shoulder to see a few of his siblings inching into the room, unsure of how to proceed. The voice belonged to Allison who had an embarrassingly cheesy smile on her face at the sight of Klaus and Dave dancing in the living room. Vanya looked awkward as hell barging into them, half hiding behind Allison and Diego just waltzed right in like it was no one’s business.

“You guys playing dress-up and you didn’t invite me?” Diego teased, falling back onto the couch and grabbing a pair of Klaus’s sunglasses off the ground, dropping them over the bridge of his nose.

“You wear the same damn thing every day. Didn’t seem like your thing.” Klaus shot right back although not with any ill-intent. Diego snorted and flipped Klaus off from where he tried to dose off behind his sunglasses.

 _So, this is where I fully introduce Dave._ Klaus prepared himself, glancing at the three people still foreign to David.

“That why you guys are creepin’? You’re jealous?” Klaus poked fun, sliding his hand into Dave’s and gently leading him closer to his siblings with intent to introduce.

“Not exactly. The west side of the house just totally lost-“

 _ZAP._ Every instance of light vanished and bathed the entirety of the house in jet-black inky darkness.

“…power.” Allison’s voice finished.

The whole big deal about the whole thing was that even though it could’ve been the storm, the family was up in arms and drowning in commission-related paranoia. With so many hits out on their family as of late, none of them could say for sure that this wasn’t some trick from their designated assassins, preparing to pounce. Klaus wasn’t _that_ worried about it, but Five was vigilant as always, suggesting that they all stay in the living room throughout the rest of the storm to ensure no one got caught alone and ended up dead.

Comforting.

Even worse was that when Klaus went upstairs to grab some pillows and blankets to lie out for himself and Dave, his boyfriend decided now was the time to “dip out” for a bit.

“ _What do you mean_?” Klaus demanded frantically when Dave announced he was going to go “recharge” for a bit.

“Baby, I’ve never been this present for so long. I’m exhausted. Plus… I think you should spend some time with your family, you know? I’ve totally stolen you away for two days.”

“And I’m sure they’d thank you for it!”

“Oh, stop. Go. I’ll be back, just give me a sec.”

So, Klaus begrudgingly dropped his armful of bedding onto the living room floor and claimed his territory, the rest of the siblings also spreading out around the room with candles dimly lighting the area. The idea was that since they were all going to wait out the power outage together, they might as well be doing some research or work towards forming a plan of defense against the commission.

So… Basically, Klaus would lounge back and take a nice nip-nap while his family talked about boring Academy shit.

So he thought.

Diego asked Klaus to keep watch of the fire going in the old fireplace that hadn’t been lit in over a decade. He sat diligently next to the flames with a log in hand, poking at the embers and watching sparks fly and sizzle like a hypnotic, fiery extravaganza. The room was quiet save for the crackling of the flames and the rustle of paper as the rest of the fam sorted through old news articles and Five studied up on further time theory in a ridiculously large book. Klaus _kinda_ listened when they talked about hunting for changed timeline events in their Dad’s collection of old papers, but he didn’t care enough to know why exactly. He was fine manning the fire on his own.

And then, like a knife slicing through the tired silence, Allison spoke.

“So… Uh… Klaus-“

And that just kicked everyone into gear.

“Yeah, okay. What the fuck, man?”

“You’ve gotta fill us in.”

“Where’ve you even been? Where’s this Dave?”

“Do we get a formal introduction or what?”

The room _burst_ into an excited buzz all around Klaus, questions pelting him from all directions. And for unsuspecting Number Four, questions = care in this situation. His siblings were _dying_ to know all about this second life that he’s hidden from them and as cheesy as it sounded, it felt good. He thought that they were going to keep to their business like they always did, passing Klaus off as a crazed family black sheep.

Not only that, but they gathered like children for story time. Luther and Allison were at the bar and instead picked up their piles of news articles and brought them to the carpet Klaus sat on. Diego sat up on the couch and leaned in with curious eyes. Vanya rushed into the armchair nearest to Klaus like a kid on Christmas morning. Even Five held his finger down on his place in his book and looked up under his cocked eyebrows. And Ben… Good ol’ Ben who Klaus just realized he’s been slightly ignoring the past couple days sat quietly next to Klaus, already “in the know” but being a supportive presence as always.

It was only Klaus who wasn’t ready. He actually cringed back at the sudden gathering that formed around him, not used to having the floor when it came to family matters. He pulled his knees closer to his chest, his bare feet tapping nervously against the decorative rug below him.

“Er- Well he’s tired so he’ll be back later.“ Klaus shrugged. “And he’s my dead boyfriend from Vietnam. Don’t know what’s so hard to grasp.” He teased, expecting that to potentially be the end of it, but it was quite the contrary. That statement alone led to a whole chorus of more questions and all the sudden, Klaus recognized this moment as a once-in-a-lifetime kind of gig; his family’s full attention on whatever kind of story he wanted to tell.

And he did.

Klaus loved telling stories, and this happened to be his favorite.

After casually brushing over the fact that he was kidnapped and tortured by Hazel and Cha-Cha, unbeknownst to them all at the time, he talked about the stupid inanimate object that started it all; the briefcase.

“So you thought you were having yourself a nice little payday and instead-“

“SMACK.” Klaus clapped his hands together, making half of the room jump as he interrupted Diego’s sentence. “Right in the middle of Vietnam, 1968.”

“Dude.” Diego rubbed his eyes tiredly, trying to grasp this new information.

“Dude.” Klaus mock-teased him. “I know. They had _the best_ drugs there. Anyway…”

He realized that some details on how it was like to be in the fucking _Vietnam War_ might be of interest, but mostly, Klaus could only focus on Dave. Everyone seemed pretty enthralled by that anyway. Honestly, Klaus wouldn’t be surprised if the fact that he found a long-term boyfriend surprised his family more than the fact that he fought in a war from 50 years ago… Klaus was more surprised by the former himself, actually.

And as long as it looked like his family was hanging onto every one of his cheesy, adoring words about how he met Dave, he’d keep that shit going forever if he could.

“I guess it was his compassion in a place where that wasn’t even in people’s dictionary. I mean, I’ve had my fair share of booty calls, don’t get me wrong, but I gueeeesssss there was something…” Klaus had trouble spitting out such gross, romantic phrases, but; “…I just wanted to, like, rip my hair out and stab my guts out until I stopped thinking about his stupid-Jewish-ass, ugh…” Klaus moaned and threw his hand over his heart, remembering how electrified he was every time Dave’s blue eyes met his own. “He had the _best_ ass in the squad. Let me tell you.”

“You’re the only one who’d think of _that_ over the _war_ going down around you.” Allison laughed, infecting the rest of them as well.

“Hey, apparently he was too.”

“ _That’s_ the shocking part.” Diego mused, earning a pillow in the head from Klaus. “I’m just saying, I can barely keep tabs on you without a war raging. How the hell did you guys build a relationship in that kind of climate?”

At this point, the room had somehow moved in further on Klaus, meaning his siblings were slowly inching forward in anticipation without even realizing. The newspapers and books and scanners were forgotten, Klaus having all the time and space he needed for his theatrical retelling. And like he said, he could go on about Dave for daaaaaays.

He talked about being gay in Vietnam- how that was just a problem in itself. He talked about the sneaking around and how it was hot until all their friends knew which was… also hot, Klaus noted. Dave watching over him in the battle field and having to sometime even yank him around by his vest to avoid Klaus’s imminent, potential death- hot, as well.

But then, he started to go into the more nitty-gritty of the last few months.

“Everyone started dying.” Klaus plainly and painfully admitted, feeling the room’s energy drop to depressing lows. “We did get one last good hoorah! I saw Bangkok! We took a vacation to Thailand in the middle of a war. Crazy, right? But, uh… It was right after that- you know, that-“

Klaus felt a hand on his back and glanced over to see that Ben had inched a bit closer and subtly reached out to offer Klaus a reassuring touch. Klaus locked eyes with his best friend for a moment in ways of thanks and then cleared his throat.

“To keep it short, he got shot on the way back up to Long Binh and I promised him that if that ever happened, I’d come back here…I just wasn’t expecting it to be so hard to find him later, but here we are.” Klaus breezed through Dave’s death as fast as he could, that wound still not fully healed. It didn’t help when the room went sympathetically quiet after that, the rest of the siblings exchanging glances that almost looked guilty if Klaus did say so himself- he wasn’t really sure what they had to be guilty for, but-

“And you… You just didn’t tell us all of this?” Allison tentatively approached, hitting Klaus with those concerned-Mom-eyes that she was so good at these days. Klaus could’ve talked about how he was scarred. He could’ve talked about how he feels like the family outcast. He could’ve talked about how they were all so wrapped up in their own business that he rarely got a second-glance, but instead, Klaus just shrugged.

“I knew there was something…” Diego muttered.

“You didn’t know shit.” Five dismissed.

“Well, not _that._ I never would’ve guessed _that_.” Diego defended, giving a quick glance of disbelief towards Klaus before staring forward and processing it on his own again.

“So… the, uh… the freak-outs you’ve been having on the side?”

“Is Dave here to stay?”

“Did you ever get hurt?”

Questions from every walk of life came hurdling at Klaus and this was all so new to him already- this “sharing with your family” thing. It was a lot. Klaus thought maybe that showed in his facial features, because Luther looked at him worriedly and then shushed the room.

“Hey, hey, hey! Look, I’m sure you have stories and I’d love to hear them all, but I just want to- I- I think I speak for everyone when I say, I’m sorry. I’m sorry that I didn’t know and that you felt like you needed to do that, or handle that, on your own. That’s insane, Klaus. I mean, we’re here, you know?”

“Yeah, dude. Seconded.” Diego piped up. What a strange thing to experience- Luther and Diego holistically agreeing on something.

“Yeah.”

“Absolutely.”

Mumbles of agreement joined the ranks. Klaus appreciated it, but once again, it made him feel uncomfortable to be put in such a vulnerable place with his family. He just nodded and glanced down at the floor, fidgeting uncomfortably.

Man, he could use a beer right now.

“Tell us about him.” Vanya joined in.

“Give us alllll the detes.” Allison excitedly added, closing her 1986 newspaper to Five’s noticeable irritation.

Klaus sighed in thought while pushing himself up, padding over towards the bar.

“Uh… Hm… Surprisingly reserved on the outside. Don’t let him fool you, though. It takes a crazy person to deal with all this.” Klaus called back over his shoulder as he pulled open the fridge and rifled through cans and bottles of all sorts. He settled on a Coors Light, commending himself for at least choosing a “light” drink. That’s fine, right?

But as soon as Klaus closed the door and moved to uncap his beer, a blue flash blinded him and the bottle in his hand was flung aside with astonishing force. It crashed against the wall and exploded in a violent burst of beer and glass. Klaus’s eyes were saucers. He froze, unsure of what just happened until his eyes fixated on an angry, little Number Five directly below him.

“What the fuck?” Klaus whined, gesturing towards the mess Five made.

“What happened to being sober?”

“I- Yeah, like, big drugs! I can’t have a beer? A _light_ beer?”

“No.”

“Dude.”

“Not really.”

A bunch of extra voices joined the fold, all denying Klaus’s request. He frowned and threw his arms up at his family who appeared to all be in agreement against him.

“I- Ugh, fiiiiiine.” Klaus shoved Five’s head on his way back to the living room, chuckling as he watched the mini assassin stumble angrily. As much as he did want that beer a moment ago, the fact that his family was stepping up enough to care what Klaus did was kind of a huge deal for him. He almost appreciated their concern more than the beer itself.

Maybe his family _was_ changing for the better.

“Keep going. With Dave.” Allison prodded as Klaus fell into the sofa comfortably. He tried to hide his excited smile at the request. _Of course,_ he’d keep talking about Dave. Any day, anytime.

“Uh… He’s passionate. Kind. Incredibly selfless and thoughtful… like to a fault.” Klaus pursed his lips and hummed reminiscently. A chuckle escaped his lips. “Makes him a stubborn lil’ bitch sometimes.”

_SMACK._

Klaus jumped from the sudden slap to the back of his head, turning around ready for battle by instinct but instead seeing _the_ stubborn lil’ bitch himself.

“You were going so strong for a while.” Dave teased, pushing Klaus’s head to the side playfully. A smile spread wide across Klaus’s face because _hot damn_ , it still felt so good just to _look_ at Dave. His stomach flipped and his chest swelled. It had only been about an hour, but he missed him desperately.

Klaus jumped up to stand on the couch, reaching to grab Dave’s shoulders in each of his hands and leading him around to stand in front of Klaus and the couch.

“Morning, sunshine.” Klaus teased, guiding Dave backward until his back pressed against Klaus’s chest as if Number Four was using him as a shield- more like he was presenting his most prized possession to his family. “You already know Danny Phantom, sasquatch, lil’ tyke…” Klaus motioned to Ben, Luther, and Five who all shot him back dirty looks for the nicknames.

“Diego.” Number Two immediately cut in and introduced himself before he could be dubbed by Klaus too. Dave shifted in front of Klaus and gave a firm nod, hello.

“Uh- Vanya.” Number Seven jumped in when she realized she was next, giving an awkward, small wave.

“Nice to meet you.” Dave affirmed, instantly surprised right afterward with a sudden embrace via Allison Hargreeves.

“I’m a hugger.” She practically squealed while squeezing Dave tightly. Klaus couldn’t help the grin that spread over his face at the sight- both because of Allison’s unwavering support of his relationship and just being able to see his life with Dave finally collide with his previous one. Not to mention, he allowed himself a little pat on the back for his powers remaining strong enough for Allie to even so much as touch Dave. “Allison.” She introduced.

“Allison.” Dave repeated with a small chuckle, also wrapping an arm around her. “Perfectly great.”

Allie pulled back and beamed at Dave and Klaus before returning to Luther’s side.

“Wish I could say we’ve heard lots about you, Dave, but evidently SOMEONE can ramble on about praying mantis sex but not once mention a war, time travel, a boy…”

“It’s called trauma, geez.” Klaus muttered from where he flopped back down onto the floor at his place next to the fire. Dave immediately followed like Klaus’s shadow. That alone sent sparks through Klaus’s spine. _Ugh_ , he never thought he’d be the “boyfriend” guy, but _man_ he loved having a boyfriend.

“But please. Tell us what he’s said about us.” Diego snickered to Klaus’s horror, the “relationship teasing” phase already in full effect. Dave put an arm around Klaus’s waist, the two of them sitting side by side near the comfortable crackle of flames.

“Don’t we have, like…. Bad guys after us that we need to research or some shit?” Klaus narrowed his eyes at Diego, but clearly, he was ignored.

“Yeah, go right down the line and give it to us straight.” Allison teased.

“Unfortunately, Klaus is actually right this time. We’ve gotta find out more about this anti-supers group that just popped into existence. Keep at the papers.” Five cut into their fun, back engrossed in his book. Klaus sighed with relief and shook out his hair from his eyes as the room groaned and kicked back into gear. Klaus had forgotten about this new “anti-supers” organization whose main goal was taking out anyone with any kind of “super” ability. Only exclusive to the new timeline they created, the group had been a pain in the side _on top_ of all the commission shit.

“Great. We can help.” Dave volunteered them _both_ without a second though. Klaus nudged him for making such promises but Dave just nudged him right back.

“C’mon. I’ll get us some articles.”

“ _HWUEAGH_.” Klaus pretended to vomit at the idea but did as Dave promised the others. At least Dave was there by his side. He’d practically do anything as long as that was the case.

~X~

“How do you feel about all of this?” Klaus had asked him earlier… or something along those lines referring to the fact that Dave was now a ghost in future-times. They had been interrupted before he could respond, but Dave didn’t know if he even _could’ve_ if he had gotten the chance. How was he? Who knows. How was someone _supposed_ to feel under these conditions?

He supposed it was just a numbing mix of all kinds of conflicting things. Elation to see Klaus again, first of all. That one was the emotion that Dave preferred to focus on. But then there was also confusion about having to constantly remind himself about his spirit form. There was frustration there too, for the loss of things he could do as a human. There was a melancholy sadness about the things he had to leave behind. There was anger: anger at himself for not doing better and dying instead of being there for Klaus… for Lizzie. There was a deepseated disappointment for the fact that Dave couldn’t give certain things to Klaus anymore- things that he deserved. There was fear: fear of what would come next or what _wouldn’t_ come next… could they sustain this forever? Go on with their previous plans like nothing ever happened? Pretend Dave wasn’t _dead_ , for God’s sakes?

  
The best and most optimistic way that Dave had been allowing himself to look at his situation was that it was, in fact, different… but nothing had proved it to be different in a _bad_ way just yet. Keep in mind, it was only the second day, but still… Dave would consider himself an overall optimistic person, and this shouldn’t be an exception.

If anything, his main concern was Klaus’s well-being… not that this objective was any different to what things were like in their first year together. Specifically now though, Klaus was clearly slipping all the way up until the day that Dave reappeared. Even now, he was forgetting to eat and wearing himself thin.

Speak of the devil, he was passed out like an angel in Dave’s lap, his head propped against Dave’s crisscrossed legs near the fire. The rest of his body spread out in a grandiose display across the rug like the true diva he is.

Dave chuckled when his eyes traveled from his 1994 newspapers down to Klaus’s peaceful face instead, the article falling from his hands so that he could ever-so-gently trace Klaus’s features. Dave relished in the sight of Klaus’s lower lip twitching just a bit at Dave’s touch. It hurt his heart when Klaus did such subtly adorable things like this- even more so after Dave died, he tried to hang on to every single image and memory he could with Klaus. If he ever went back to that evil ghost purgatory of mixed memories and fuzzy recollections, he’d go insane. It was awful not being able to remember specifics about Klaus when he was in that spiritual limbo for fifty years.

“What’s this song?” Dave found himself speaking up before he even thought about it. He glanced specifically at Luther who was also the first to answer.

“Friends. Led Zeppelin.”

“Ah. Yeah, I’m loving Zeppelin.”

“A staple in rock, for sure. Borrow my records anytime.” Dave watched Luther offer over his own spread-out newspapers, Klaus’s other sibling Allison sleepily helping by his side.

“Appreciate it.” Dave nodded, glancing back down at Klaus and brushing strand hairs from his forehead. He fidgeted a bit in his sleep, but otherwise remained dead to the world. His steady breaths expanded his chest out gently, the sound of his inhales and exhales accompanying the snapping fire.

“You know, you don’t have to keep searching. We found enough to kind of get an idea of what this organization is about.” Luther told Dave, closing his own paper and checking the clock on the wall: almost one A.M. Time didn’t mean much to Dave now though. It wasn’t like he had to sleep or eat or anything.

“No, it’s alright. As long as I’m intruding, I could at least help.” Dave assured him, genuinely more than pleased to be able to assist Klaus’s super bad-ass “powered” family. Who else got to say that they had the chance to do that?

“Oh, please. You took care of our boy. We owe _you_.” Allison yawned, tossing her newspaper aside and leaning back against the couch. Dave hummed in acknowledgement and glanced back down at Klaus who, quite frankly, he couldn’t take his eyes off of. Even as Klaus slept through last night, he couldn’t tear his eyes away. Still, Dave had a hard time accepting that he was there with him again- with his baby that he’d give his life over and over and over again for and-

“I don’t know… Not sure who took care of who.” Dave answered once he realized he was getting too wrapped up in studying Klaus’s beauty. He met Allison’s adoring eyes briefly- Klaus’s sister was clearly 300% supportive of everything he-and-Klaus related which was a comforting feeling coming into a new family. Back in ’68 or ’69, the chances of your boyfriend’s family being totally kosher with the whole “gay” thing was next to none. Not only that, but Klaus’s family accepted that Dave was,

  1. Dead
  2. From the past



2019 was absolute anarchy and Dave was kind of loving it. But more important matters were in need of addressing and Dave had been desperate for answers for a while now;

“So, um… How is he? I mean, lately.” Dave spoke up in a small moment of courage, glancing around at the room of Klaus’s siblings before returning back to his eye-line’s safety: Klaus himself.

Dave was worried that they’d be uncomfortable or unknowledgeable about Klaus’s well-being since he returned from Vietnam, but it was on the complete contrary. Thank God, too. Klaus wasn’t telling Dave shit about that kind of stuff.

“Man. The _running_. Right, Di?” Ben jumped in first, calling upon Diego for backup. They spoke about how to substitute for drugs, Klaus would often go on runs which was fine and dandy until he ran himself to the point of black-out.

Five talked about the sobriety. Up until now, Dave had never seen the kid act so softly vulnerable as speaking openly about his own and also Klaus’s addictions. Dave kind of wished Klaus was awake to experience it, but he’d just have to tell him sometime: that even though Klaus _felt_ like Five was a hard-ass (which, believe Dave, he _was_ ), he clearly cared deeply about his siblings.

Allison talked about the lack of eating. Vanya mentioned something about his growing powers and therefore, growing amounts of ghosts plaguing his mind.

With every word that Klaus’s family admitted, Dave felt his chest tighten just a bit more. He found himself burying his fingers in Klaus’s hair, gently brushing through his locks while his other hand-held Klaus’s lifeless one. He wasn’t sure if he was glad that he asked about all of this or if it just succeeded in hurting Dave to think about. Either way, he guessed it was important to know exactly what he was up again, even if Klaus claimed that he was “totally tubular” with Dave back. Things like that- PTSD, lack of appetite, not sleeping, increasing hauntings… that can’t just _disappear_ , even if Dave did return.

“He’s strong, though,” Ben added when the room was silent for a tick. “He’ll be alright.” 

If there was anyone in this room that Dave should listen to regarding Klaus, it was Ben… still, he hoped he wasn’t wrong.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Be my once in a lifetime  
> Lying on your chest, in my party dress  
> I'm a fucking mess but I  
> Oh, thanks for the high life  
> Baby, it's the best,  
>  pass the test And yes,  
>  now I'm here with you and I  
> Would like to think that you would stick around  
> You know that I'd just die to make you proud  
> The taste, the touch, the way we love  
> It all comes down to make the sound of our love song
> 
> NEXT UP: The Academy begins to find a rhythm of new normalcy, even among the battle with the commission. Claire comes to visit, but so does a more unexpected, unwelcome spirit. Klaus discovers something that may prevent him from moving past Dave’s death.


	10. This House is a Circus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Claire comes to visit and so does a less-welcome spirit.

Klaus was fully engrossed in the painstaking, masterful work before him.

“Damn. You’re good at that.” Klaus told Claire as she leaned close over his fingernails, painting them a deep violet per her suggestion.

_SMACK._

Klaus jumped at the sudden yet merely playful slap at the back of his head. He turned (slowly, so he didn’t mess up Claire’s work) to meet Allison’s disapproving eye.

“I mean… Darn. You’re good at that.”

Claire giggled and finished up his last pinkie fingernail, leaning back to admire her handiwork.

“I know bad words.” She defended as if Klaus was silly for ever suggesting otherwise.

“Claire…” Allison warned.

“Well, I don’t say them, Mom! I hear them at the back of the bus.”

“Ah…” Klaus noted, holding out his hands for Claire to spray them with quick-drying nail spray. “Back of the bus. A nostalgic delicacy I’ll never know.”

“The _bus_?” Claire asked, tickled by the fact that Klaus would ever call it a “delicacy”.

“Uncle Klaus and I were homeschooled, remember?” Allison called over her shoulder as she moseyed out of the kitchen to put her box of nail beauty products away.

“Well, you’re not missing anything _good_.” Claire assured Klaus. He raised an eyebrow and nodded like he was heeding her advice intently.

Needless to say, Dave was in heaven watching the scene play out before him. He had never seen Klaus interact with a kid and already being someone who loved kids, this was like Dave’s most adorable dream come true. Despite the fact that Klaus was wildly, uncharacteristically nervous before Claire arrived at their city-mansion, he clicked with her instantly- probably the most out of all of her Aunts and Uncles. When Dave thought about it more though, it made sense that Klaus jived well with children. He was a 6-foot child, afterall- and only in the good sense.

Dave was also nervous, he should note. Not for the same reasons Klaus was though- he just didn’t want to be meeting Klaus’s young niece for the first time just to suddenly turn blue and invisible. Not the first impression you want to make on a kid.

But if Dave had any kind of plan to keep his “ghostlihood” a secret, Klaus stomped it out in the initial introductions immediately.

“Who’s that?” Claire had asked as everyone was crowding and introducing themselves to her in the foyer. Dave had stayed back by the living room to give the family a moment, but Claire called him out immediately. Before he could come in the room and _normally_ introduce himself, Klaus turns, glances, smiles, and goes,

“That’s Uncle Klaus’s ghost-boyfriend, Dave!”

Allison taught Dave about some “new-day” trends, including something called a “facepalm”. From what he understood, this was the perfect situation to exercise such a function.

Dave awkwardly waved at the surprisingly unfazed girl beaming at him across the room and Allison closed her eyes and sighed from behind Claire, her hands on Claire’s shoulders.

“You couldn’t think of anything more creative?” She quietly cut at Klaus who shrugged and threw his hands up defensively.

“What’s more ‘creative’ than that?” Klaus laughed, shooting Dave a quiet wink to which he rolled his eyes at. He loved that cocky bastard.

Anyway, after a loud and boisterous family lunch with Claire as the star of the show (Dave _adored_ that he was comfortable enough to include himself as part of the “family” meal), Klaus and her clicked and somehow ended up with a full-blown beauty salon set up in the kitchen.

Meanwhile, Dave was toying around with the old keyboard they had in their basement-kitchen-cove thing. “Toying around” was putting it lightly though- he had to really practice for the first time since he got deployed for his first tour 52 years ago. The reason?

A few days ago, Vanya came in from practice in disarray.

* * *

“ _V._ ” Klaus complained immediately as Vanya entered and dropped her violin case onto the couch. Dave glanced at Klaus as they sat around watching _Star Wars_ with Ben. Speaking of which, Dave found that he _loved_ Star Wars. Loved. Loved. Loved. Loved. Part of the reason was that Ben was already so into the franchise- it was easy to fall into what Ben called the “fandom” when he was like Dave’s everything-Star-Wars mentor.

Back to Klaus though, he was suddenly balled up on the sofa next to Dave, his hands over his ears and his knees pulled to his chest. Dave frowned and put a hand on his back tentatively, unsure what all the fuss was about.

“Sorry! Sorry…” Vanya fumbled to apologize, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. Klaus instantly relaxed and slumped into Dave’s side who felt more comfortable wrapping a full arm around him now.

“Vanya stress vibes.” Klaus explained to Ben and Dave. _Stress-vibes_ were what Klaus called the low, apparently painful but dull bursts of energy that radiated from Vanya whenever she was supremely stressed about something. The reason Dave and Ben could never sense it had something to do with being only of the “spiritual” existence. “What’s up, buttercup? Why you in a funk?” Klaus continued to ask Vanya while Ben paused the film.

“The conductor. Being a complete _asshole._ ” She punctuated her last word with a visible hum of energy that pulsed around her frame. The more Dave got to know Klaus’s sister, the more he was impressed by everything about her. She was so humble and shy and kind, yet so insanely powerful. She was both incredibly welcoming and fundamentally terrifying.

“Isn’t he usually a big dick-wad?” Klaus asked.

“More-so today. Our pianist got hitched and ran off to Mexico so we might be screwed for our show next week.” Vanya muttered, dropping into the sofa next to Ben and kicking her feet up while tiredly rubbing her eyes. “My shoulder and wrist are killing me.”

The room was quiet for a moment of sympathetic acknowledgment, but Dave was mostly focused on Klaus’s face. He saw the gears turning in his head behind his eyes- slowly, but they were turning. Dave knew what he was thinking and he desperately hoped Klaus didn’t resort to saying it out loud, but-

“WAIT.” Klaus’s eyes got wide and Dave gave up all hope for keeping Klaus’s idea under wraps. It was too late once Klaus got going though- Dave knew what was coming next. To verify, Klaus spun in Dave’s arm and slapped him in the chest excitedly.

“Ow…” Dave mumbled as Klaus ignored him and jumped up and down in his place.

“Dave plays!”

“Really?” Vanya perked up which is exactly what Dave was worried about. As much as he wanted to help out, he wasn’t sure it was such a bright idea.

“I mean… Kind of. It’s been a while. Plus, do you think it’s a good idea to put me in the public eye? I mean… what if I just vanish and-“

“You haven’t ‘vanished’ in like three days straight. You’ll be fine.” Klaus urged, shoving Dave’s shoulder excitedly. He sighed and glanced at Vanya’s hopeful eyes digging into his soul. At this point, he couldn’t really say no, could he?

“If you can get me some of the sheet music, I’ll see what I can manage.” Dave gave in, at least able to relish in Klaus and Vanya’s pure delight.

* * *

Fast forward to about a week later, Dave was fully into the idea of being part of the orchestra now. He got hacking away at some of the music that Vanya brought back and found that he didn’t lose much of his piano skill once he got going. It felt damn good to be able to have some time with an instrument again- to know that he could still do things he loved, even dead.

All possible because of Klaus, of course. And Klaus adored it too- that’s what he told Dave time and time again, at least. He’d sit next to Dave on the piano bench for an hour just watching Dave’s hands move across the keys. An hour was a _long_ time to get Klaus to stay still, so he clearly really did enjoy it. Dave enjoyed having him there too, of course.

“You know, I can play _Chopstick_ s.”

Claire said from the table as she and Klaus played some kind of “patty-cake” like game-chant called “Concentration”.

“ _Really_?” Dave raised his eyebrows, letting his hands slow to a stop so he could scoot over for Claire to join. “I don’t know what that is, but come show me.”

“What?” She squealed in delight, running over to join Dave behind the piano. “You don’t know _Chopsticks_? Everyone at my school knows it.”

“Dave’s a little behind the times.” Klaus snorted from the table where he turned his chair to watch Dave and Claire interact.

“I’ll teach you to do the low part.” Claire told Dave, fearlessly taking his hands and placing them where she wanted them. It only took a couple of minutes until Dave and Claire were playing alongside each other, Dave cranking out the low accompaniment while Claire keyed out the melody. Once they ended the never-ending cycle of the little tune, Klaus feverishly clapped and faked “giant crowd” cheers. Claire jumped up and bowed and blew kisses to the “crowd”.

Damn, Dave missed when Lizzie was this age.

There was a moment right then where Dave and Klaus happened to glance at each other at the same time. Just with one look at each other, Dave could feel that love for where they were finding themselves right now- safe in a home and allowed the luxury of lazily sitting by the piano on a Saturday with homemade food in their bellies (or whatever happened to food when ghosts ate it) and a bright kid that was impossible _not_ to adore bouncing between them.

This was the first time Dave ever felt the sense that he and Klaus were in a remotely “normal” relationship. He didn’t need to have that feeling- he was always fine with the weird, unconventional nature of his boyfriend and everything that surrounded him. This was just a glimpse of something different though- something that potentially _could_ be in their future if they wanted it. It felt good, and he knew Klaus felt that same rush of realization simultaneously.

But then, Dave saw something different in Klaus’s gaze. His small little smile that he adored so much faltered just barely, but enough for Dave to catch it. Klaus tried to cover it up by throwing Dave a quick suggestive wink before turning back to talk to Claire, but Dave wasn’t fooled.

“What else ya got?” Klaus prodded Claire who excitedly sat up on the bench, prepared to display her whole repertoire.

“Happy Birthday!”

As the slow, broken stream of notes from “Happy Birthday” chimed in Dave’s head, he could only truly focus on thoughts that he recently had been working hard to keep out of his mind.

This fantasy that Dave sometimes thought of- a long, full life with Klaus- would he be able to deliver that now? He tried to list off all the things that he could no longer give to Klaus in his new state of being. No stability… in multiple senses. He couldn’t promise to _always_ be present. He didn’t know how this “corporeal ghost stuff” worked exactly, but what if he was just to vanish one day without explanation?

And could Dave ever have a stable career? Could he ever operate without Klaus for long? Without his tie to the physical world? Could they get married if they ever wanted to? According to the world, Dave didn’t exist as a human being anymore. He was dead. How do you have a true identity as a dead person?

What about their dream to travel together?

What about having a potential family?

What about-

“Please?” Claire’s voice pierced Dave’s thoughts along with a gentle shake of his arm. He blinked out of his trance and glanced over to see two giant puppy-dog eyes staring up at him.

“Hm?”

“She wants you to teach her something, Professor Dave.” Klaus explained with a small smirk over Dave’s space-out. He cleared his throat and raised an eyebrow.

“Oh. Uh, yeah. What about… You know, ‘You Are My Sunshine’?”

“Uh… Pshya!” Claire giggled, readying her fingers over the piano, ready for anything. Dave chuckled and moved his hands up next to hers, instantly reminded of the old days when he used to teach Lizzie some basic piano tunes. This is what he had wanted to do with his life after all- teaching music to kids. Dave felt some of those more daunting thoughts melt away and his heart swelled instead. He was in his element here. It reminded him that maybe there _was_ still hope that he could do almost everything he could before, including being “Professor Dave” like Klaus so cheekily teased him.

“You play this chord with your left… Yeah. There you go.” Dave continued to instruct, watching Claire’s little fingers try to stretch over the keys. He was painfully aware of Klaus watching their every movement ever so adoringly from the kitchen table. Sometimes he’d throw him a small smile that would make Klaus beam even wider.

He loved to make him happy.

_BOOM._

Like a bomb going off all around him, Dave’s head was cruelly interrupted by the sound of stone and plaster being blown to smithereens. Before he knew what was happening, dust and particles rained down before giant looming chunks of ceiling cracked apart. Dave had a split second to react, luckily jumping into full war-mode and acting instinctually. He threw himself over Claire, sheltering her from the avalanche of falling debris.

Pain erupted all over Dave’s body as he was pelted by angry ceiling-remains, every impact threatening to collapse Dave’s frame over Claire’s own small one. He stayed braced with one hand grasping the wall and the other holding the edge of the keyboard though, his only goal focused on protecting the barely 10-year-old girl who was shrieking below him.

Finally, the excruciatingly loud rumblings and drumfire quieted, leaving Dave in some pretty intense searing pain and intense weight pressing down on his back. The world stilled, but nothing was the same. The lights had blown out leaving only darkness and Dave could feel him and Claire surrounded by imprisoning chunks of heavy material. Once his eyes adjusted, Dave saw that they were trapped inside a mountain of building materials, a little space allowed around them, but not much. He let his arms down from where they were protectively held over Claire, testing his movements.

“Damnit…” He grunted, shifting and feeling a jagged shard of stone poking at his back. The piece over him shifted and he slowly maneuvered it off of him, careful not to collapse the cave around him and Claire. Once he was free from holding up any ceiling parts with his body, he dropped to a kneel next to Clair who huddled by the broken remains of the piano bench.

“Hey, hey, hey…” Dave whispered once he heard her small, panicked gasps. She sniffled and buried her face in her knees where she was balled up on the ground. “Claire… Claire, you have to tell me if you’re hurt. Are you hurt?”

“N- No…” She whimpered, her voice breaking and punctured with more horrified chokes for air.

“Alright. It’s okay. We’re okay.” He put a hand on her arm and rubbed her back, glancing around at their predicament. There was hardly much space allowed around them until you met daunting, jagged sides of debris that encapsulated the area they were trapped in. What the _hell_ happened?

“Klaus?” Dave called out, forcing himself past the fear of wondering what it meant if he didn’t get an answer back. Waiting… Waiting… Waiting… “Klaus!” Dave shouted, his heart pounding in his ears.

Nothing.

Claire started to cry harder from beside Dave and he swallowed the lump in his throat to be able to focus on keeping her safe for now.

“Hey. Remember that game Uncle Klaus taught you?” Dave asked, nudging Claire’s arm. She sniffled but didn’t answer, so Dave continued. “Yeah… Remember… This is a game-“ Dave clapped his hands three times like Klaus did earlier. “-of concentration.” More claps.

“N- No repeats.” Claire hesitantly joined in, clapping quietly along.

“Or hesitation.”

“I go first.”

“I go second.”

“Category is…” Clap. Clap. Clap. “Sea animals.” Dave quickly spat out. “Starfish.”

Clap. Clap. Clap.

“Dolphin.” Claire chipped in, her voice becoming more and more steady as they progressed in their game.

“Swordfish.” Dave went next. “Keep going.” He urged, still playing but trying to find a way to safely get out simultaneously.

“Clownfish.”

Clap. Clap. Clap.

Dave saw dim light leaking in from a gap in their claustrophobic prison. He gently prodded a chunk of stone, seeing if it was safe to move without collapsing the house down upon them.

“Eel.”

Clap. Clap. Clap.

“ _CLAIRE?_ ” A familiar voice shrieked from the outside world.

“Mommy!”

“We’re fine… just trapped.” Dave called out to Allison whose footsteps ran up to the disaster they were stuck under.

“Oh my God… Oh my God…” Allison breathed, panic clear in her voice. “Vanya!”

“Coming, coming…” Vanya’s voice joined in, followed by Diego and Luther’s.

“Shit…” Luther breathed. Dave’s heart stopped. Did they see Klaus? Before he could ask, he heard Diego’s voice.

“Klaus? Klaus… Hey… Luther, help me move this.”

Dave swallowed thickly.

“Diego is- is he-“

“We got it. Just focus on you right now.” Luther urged Dave from the outside. Meanwhile, Claire continued to play their game like a true champ.

“Angelfish.”

Clap. Clap. Clap. Dave smiled sadly at her and followed her lead.

“Seahorse.”

Clap. Clap. Clap.

“Okay, if you can stay away from as much debris as you can, I’m going to lift it all.” Vanya’s voice called out. Dave positioned himself over Claire again, trying to protect her against any potential hits.

“We’re ready. Right, Claire?”

“Mhm.” Her shaky voice affirmed from below him.

A vibrating energy surrounded them and the air seemed to bend, ebb, and flow. Light rushed in as stones and plaster began to rise gently from the ground, hovering midair all around Dave and Claire. Finally, he could see the remains of the rest of the kitchen again, noting absolutely no ceiling left and one wall collapsed. Vanya held her hands in front of her, controlling the hovering of the stones and slowly moving them out of the way. Dave cautiously unraveled himself from over Claire just in time for her to sprint into Allison’s arms.

“Aw, baby… Are you okay?” Allison nearly sobbed, squeezing Claire in her arms and kissing her all over.

“I’m okay, Mom.” Claire was slowly returning to her fearless façade to Dave’s relief. It was a short-lived reprieve though- there was only one thing on his mind now: Klaus.

“Thank you. Thank you so much.” Allison put a hand on Dave’s arms as he passed. He gave her a forced smile of appreciation and put a hand on her hand in ways of “you’re welcome” before rushing to where Diego and Luther kneeled over more rubble and an obliterated table. Dave saw his lifeless open palm first, limply strewn out across the floor and covered in plaster dust. His heart palpitated as he found the rest of Klaus unconscious, his head in Diego’s lap.

Number Two kneeled over Klaus’s chest, listening for a heartbeat.

“Is he-“

Diego held up a finger to quiet Dave as he listened for a heartbeat. It gave Katz a moment to study Klaus further. His face was lightly dusted with chalky plaster, the same with his hair. He had the beginnings of bruising on his right arm that was stretched out towards where Dave kneeled. Other than that, Dave couldn’t immediately pick out any damning injuries, but he also couldn’t see much of Klaus’s head which seemed to be the problem- he was knocked out cold.

Unfortunately, Dave could only _wish_ Klaus was simply “knocked out”. All of his hope for said situation flew out the window when Diego straightened in panic and slowly lowered Klaus’s head to the floor. He positioned his hands over Klaus’s chest and quickly glanced up at Luther.

“Get Mom.” Was all he said before he started delivering compressions to Klaus’s lifeless body. Dave’s throat closed. He immediately reached to grab Klaus’s hand in his own, feeling the small jolts through his bones as Diego pumped his hands against Klaus’s sternum.

“Come on, asshole.” Diego murmured under his breath, just loud enough for Dave to hear the fear in his voice. He didn’t know what to say. He didn’t know what to do. The only thing Dave could hold onto was the fact that he was still here and “material” in this physical, living world. He wouldn’t be able to do that if Klaus wasn’t okay… right? In fact, Dave felt more corporeal and present than ever.

But maybe that was a bad thing. Maybe that was just what happened when his tie to the human world (i.e. Klaus) was caught directly in the middle of the metaphysical and physical… Maybe Klaus was dying.

Just then, he felt a warmth at the back of his neck and shivers ran down his spine. Dave shuddered and felt the hairs across his skin stand up, goosebumps erupted all over him for the first time since he inhabited this new ghost-form. A pit sunk into his stomach and he felt his fingertips tingle.

“Klaus…” He nearly-silently whispered under his breath like his instincts knew something before Dave himself did. But just as soon as the sensation came, it went and Dave was left vacant and terrified, holding Klaus’s inanimate hand while Diego struggled to bring his brother back.

_Please don’t do this._ Dave thought, hoping it would magically reach Klaus or the other powers that be. _Not now. Not after everything we’ve been through. Don’t take him too._

But something inside of Dave already knew, and if his intuition wasn’t enough to tell him, the sight of Klaus was- no air was moving in and out of his lungs, no movement was happening underneath his eyelids, no movement was happening _period_.

Klaus Hargreeves was already dead.

* * *

He didn’t really remember much past enjoying the sight of Dave doing what he said he’s always wanted to do- mix his passion for kids and music. It was like a drug to Klaus- being able to see him in his element like that.

And now, where was he? It was the kitchen, but a strangely celestial version of it where the lights were overexposed and the color was sucked from the Earth. There were human-sized orbs of blue light that floated gently around the room and Klaus, but other than that, no other signs of life.

“Uh… Dave?” Klaus called out for the first thing he thought of. He spun around, trying to get his bearings. He didn’t feel anything- not the throbbing headache he woke up with today, not the floor beneath his bare feet, not a single hint of temperature nor his own hair across his forehead.

And then…

“ _FOUR._ ”

Klaus shrieked and jumped high into the air, spinning around to come face to face with the last, last, last, last, last, he-couldn’t-emphasize-enough… _LAST_ person he wanted to see right now or ever.

“Daddio.”

“Hrmph,” Reginald grunted disapprovingly before stalking off to the edge of the kitchen to inspect the wall. Klaus frowned and hesitantly approached his father from behind.

“Uh… Hello?”

Reginald didn’t answer but instead inspected the bare kitchen walls and ceilings as if he was seeing something that Klaus was clearly not.

“Sorry, I was under the impression that you were here to talk to me. Not stare at walls.” Klaus impatiently tapped his foot. “I’ve got someone to get back to and-“

“Are you really _that_ blind, Number Four?” Reginald spat, making Klaus roll his eyes in tired frustration. “And I’m not _here_ for _you_. You’re encroaching on the dead’s territory, Number Four. You’re the intruder.”

“Jesus. Then I’ll just be on my merry way then, won’t I?” Klaus threw up his hands in irritated disgust, turning on his heel. But right then on his spin, the kitchen was revealed for what it was- for what Reginald was seeing it for- for what it really was like in the land of the living…

Destroyed.

Klaus’s eyes widened as he saw the situation before him. The walls and ceilings had come down all around them. Right where Dave and Claire used to be playing the piano, there was an enormous pile of debris instead. Klaus’s heart jumped until he saw Claire wrapped up tightly in Allison’s arms. Vanya was there too, shifting around chunks of the ceiling with her powers in an attempt to start cleaning up. Then there was Dave, Diego, and Luther, all crouched over the dusted ground hovering near the shattered kitchen table.

Klaus felt his stomach flutter with excitement and relief to see Dave okay. He quickly reminded himself that Dave had already pretty much triumphed over conventional death and there wasn’t much else that could hurt him now. Still, he worried.

Klaus’s eyes trailed over Dave’s arm that was stretched before him and grasping a hand… Klaus’s own hand.

“Oh…” Klaus murmured, taking a few steps forward to get a better look. There he was in all his dead glory- Klaus’s body was lifeless underneath Diego’s attempts to resuscitate him. Dave’s irises didn’t leave Klaus’s pale face for a second, his hand notable shaking in Klaus’s own. “Aw, baby…” He dropped to his knees behind Dave, upset to realize that even though they were both technically “dead” currently, Dave couldn’t hear him. Klaus reached out and tried to touch his side anyway.

To Klaus’s surprise, his fingertips met the fabric of Dave’s shirt and the firmness of his muscles, but it was different. It was there but also so far. Dave didn’t as much as flinch either.

“He can’t hear you. There’s much about the living and the dead worlds that you must learn.” Reginald spoke from behind Klaus, really dampening an already unfortunate situation. Klaus ignored him and leaned forward to press a soft kiss to the back of Dave’s neck, smelling his mint and aftershave even though ghosts didn’t even need to shave.

Dave’s body went rigid underneath Klaus’s touch. He heard him whisper his name before he let his guard down again, seemingly unaffected once more. Klaus grinned and raised an eyebrow.

“Seems like there’s more for _you_ to learn, dear Papa.” Klaus snarkily shot back, earning another “hrmph” from Reginald. He continued to walk around the kitchen and examine the damage disapprovingly.

“What? No, you’ve been wasting your life, Number Four! You’re not doing enough, Number Four! You’re hair’s too long, Number Four! Dare you get distracted with silly fraternizations. A _male_ no less!” Klaus huffed in his best Reggie-voice.

“Your sexual preference means nothing to me, Number Four. It has no effect on your Academy capabilities.”

“Oh.” Klaus was actually slightly surprised by this until he remembered, “Yeah, I guess I should’ve known you’d only have the utmost indifference and lack of interest.”

“Stop whining.”

“You’re extra cranky today.” Klaus stood up, giving Dave’s hair one last ruffle before he turned his attention to his dad.

“Why is this commission business getting so out of hand? Look at the state of the Academy!”

Klaus blew a raspberry and threw his hands up.

“Well, what do you want from us?”

“You all have to be working _together_. You can’t be halfway in, halfway out! You’re either fully dedicated to the Academy and functional, or not an “Academy” at all.”

“Yeah…” Klaus moaned in disdain. “That’s more of Five’s thing.”

Reginald stepped closer to Klaus, causing him to slink backward away from his father’s cold gaze that pierced him from only a foot away from his face.

“You have no idea how much this affects you too. Don’t be so selfishly quick to dismiss your surroundings. Don’t be so daft.”

Klaus frowned as Reginald cut him with his last phrase, turning to examine the room of the rest of his adopted children experiments. Klaus frowned and glanced down at his feet against the dusty floors. He was getting really tired of this cryptic dad-visits that left him with more questions than answers.

“What are you saying, old man?”

Reginald scoffed.

“The only way to kick you into gear is when it directly affects you so let me spell this out…”

What Reginald “spelled out” next had Klaus frozen in place. He brought it all up in the simplest form point-by-point which Klaus first found insulting, but he soon started to actually appreciate it as his mind struggled to accept what his dad was implying.

Klaus went to Vietnam.

Klaus wasn’t _supposed_ to go to Vietnam.

And who takes care of discrepancies like that? Who tirelessly aims to keep the timeline intact, as is?

“…the Commission.”

Reginald just stared and that was answer enough. Klaus felt his throat close and his fingertips go cold. Was he hearing him right?

Was Reginald suggesting that the event that forced Klaus to go back… Dave’s death… was, in fact, a _murder_?

In Klaus’s stunned silence, he could hear more of what was transpiring in the living-world. Ben was here now, and man, did he look like he needed a stiff drink. Ben was doused in dark crimson, chunks of human attached to his clothes, and his shirt ripped to pieces but still clinging to his body. Whoever attacked the house probably was _not_ ready for Klaus’s favorite little kill machine.

“Diego… Diego, hold off.” Ben pulled back on Diego’s shoulder who was still pounding on Klaus’s chest. Now that he thought about it, even in the dead-world, Klaus could feel the soreness starting to set into his sternum. Mom kneeled by Klaus’s physical body now, gently placing her fingertips on his eyelids to look at the whites of his eyes.

“He can’t- This c- c- can’t-“ Diego started to stutter in a frenzy. Ben put a bloody hand on his shoulder.

“Breathe, dude. He does this a lot.”

“What?”

“Klaus. He does this a lot. He’ll wake up.” Ben said, half-assuredly. Klaus was glad that both Dave and Ben were still corporeal to give his other less-knowing siblings some hope. At least Ben was knowledgeable about Klaus’s often death-scares. He wasn’t really worried about dying right now, so he hoped they’d all just calm down a bit while he processed what his dead-dad was telling him right now.

When Klaus was out of words and utterly silent for one of the only times in his life, Reginald continued.

“You’re not skeptical enough, Number Four. You must always be two steps ahead. The Commission is a _threat_ to everything I’ve built.”

“Oh… Pfft. Everything _you’ve_ built? Some of us are okay with living in the moment like a healthy human being who doesn’t commit suicide just to get what he wants.”

And while that sentiment was true, Klaus couldn’t help but think of was the paranoia planted in his head by his father. How could he not? He was basically implying that Dave’s death was an assignation… because of _him_. Because _Klaus_ was there and shouldn’t have been.

Shit.

_Shit._

Klaus glanced back up to ask his Dad more, but he was gone. Klaus swallowed the lump in his throat and scoffed.

“Prick.”

* * *

_GASP._

Dave felt Klaus’s hand jerk in his own, breath filling his chest and his spine shooting up so that he was sitting straight up and gasping for air. The whole room’s tension broke with the sudden outburst, the fear for Klaus’s life dissipating with every breath he pulled into his body.

“Dude…” Ben let out a relieved sigh, holding out a hand for Klaus to take. Ben helped pull him up into one of the surviving chairs, rubbing his back as he coughed and heaved.

“He alright?” Diego asked, taking a step closer to check in on his brother.

“Slight concussion, most likely. Maybe a sprained wrist. Klaus, honey. I need you to take it easy for the next 24 hours, okay?” Grace put a delicate hand on Klaus’s shoulder. He nodded tiredly and she click-clacked away, satisfied. Dave took that as a good opportunity to rush forward and take Klaus’s hand in his own, resting it against Klaus’s knee.

“Scare the shit out of me, why don’t you?” Dave muttered, kissing Klaus’s forehead and tasting dust. Klaus perked up and rushed to wrap his arms around Dave’s neck. Katz gladly returned the gesture, squeezing Klaus close and safe to his body.

“Ghosts can’t even shit.”

Dave rolled his eyes and kissed the nook between Klaus’s neck and shoulder.

“Smartass.”

Once they all recovered from the shock of the destruction and Klaus’s near-death, the family reconvened in the living room that was thankfully untouched. Luther explained that it was a blindsided attack from the Anti-Super hate group. From what Five scavenged from the wreckage at the side of the house, it was an old M26 grenade. The explosion was just a way for five of the militant group member to infiltrate the Academy in hopes to take the family out, but Ben met them at the door and wiped the lot out instantly.

“Nice.” Klaus raised his hand for Ben to high-five when that part of the story was announced. Ben was still trying to remove the blood from under his fingernails when he gave Klaus a dirty look. Klaus let his hand fall before taking Ben’s hand and manually making him high-five instead.

“I don’t think the grenade is a coincidence.” Five muttered as he examined the remains underneath a desk lamp. “This is classic Commission.”

“But it was clearly the ASO. I mean… it said so on their vests.” Allison argued from her place on the couch where she kept an arm constantly secured around Claire ever since the explosion. “ASO” was just the abbreviated “Anti-Supers Organization” … real creative. Dave couldn’t help but feel a large amount of hate for the particular group. Their sole focus was to kill his boyfriend and his family, after all.

“What I’m _saying_ is that these might not be separate problems anymore.” Five muttered in frustration. Dave didn’t have anything against the smallest Hargreeves, but he was quite the condescending, angry old-man sometimes.

“You’re saying that the ASO is working alongside the Commission?”

“Well. We’re fucked.” Diego threw his hands up as Allison threw hers over Claire’s ears. She giggled for the first time since the ceiling collapsed, making Diego smile and wink at her. As terrible as it was that Claire had to experience the traumatic experience, it was nice to have her there to lighten the mood as this news was dropped on them all like an atom bomb.

“We can’t be screwing around anymore. This was a clear act of war from two very dangerous groups.” Allison said, her face hard and set.

“Which is why we can’t just ‘neutralize’ the threat like all of our past enemies. That was kid-stuff. This is the real world. The Commission is bigger and stronger than you could ever imagine.” Five tossed the grenade shards aside in frustration, pacing around the room.

“We don’t have a choice anymore! They attacked us in our home! They’re getting bolder and bolder. What next? They snipe us in our sleep? Our _families_?” Allison pressed, rising to her feet angrily. The room looked surprised at her sudden feverish passion against the Commission, but Dave thought about it and it made sense- she could’ve lost Claire today. No doubt, she was feeling guilty, terrified, and helpless all at once.

“What do you expect we do then, Allison? I’m trying my best here!” Five shouted back. “They’ll stop at nothing to secure the world’s destruction once again. They’re already one step ahead.”

“Then we need to be two.” Dave was shocked to hear come out of Klaus’s mouth. Not that he doubted that Klaus had viable things to say- he just got the impression that Klaus never cared or paid attention as much as the rest of the family. It was also a very un-Klaus-like answer.

Everyone turned and frowned at the uncharacteristic outburst. Klaus shrugged from underneath Dave’s arm that he had wrapped around his shoulders.

“Just sayin’.”

Five sighed and rubbed his eyes. The room waited in stillness, no one sure on how to proceed.

“You’re right.” Five murmured.

“What?” Allison leaned forward.

“You’re right. We need to neutralize the threat completely. Just not with brute force. We have to go about this smartly. Know our angles. We can’t destroy the Commission, but we can weaken and infiltrate. We just need more information.”

“Well, we know the ASO is working with them now.” Luther offered up.

“I’ll hit the streets. See if anyone knows where they operate out of.” Diego immediately stood up.

“Eh, eh, eh. Too dangerous to be out alone now.” Luther put a big hand on Diego’s chest, stopping him. “I’ll come with you.” Diego huffed but gave in, waving Luther along.

“The rest of us have to reinforce the house. Add more protection. Vanya?” Five glanced over.

“On it.” She instantly said.

Everyone stood and started to move towards the side of the house that was blown off, making plans to secure a temporary wall and more surveillance around the area. Meanwhile, Dave took Klaus’s hand in his own. He was just glad that he didn’t lose him today.

“You feeling okay?” He asked to make sure. Klaus sighed and let his head fall against the side of Dave’s own.

“Yeah.” 

“You sure?”

Ever since Klaus quite literally woke from the dead, he hadn’t been the same. It could’ve been the concussion, but Dave knew that look. Klaus had experienced something that he wasn’t telling Dave about.

“Mm.”

“Okay.” Dave kissed his jaw and helped him up, noting the distant look in Klaus’s eye.

He hoped it was just the concussion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This house is a circus, berserk as fuck  
> We tend to see that as a perk, though look  
> What it's done to your friends  
> Their memories are pretend  
> And the last thing that they want is for the feeling to end
> 
> NEXT UP: The Academy tracks the ASO headquarters to a nightclub down the street. When Klaus runs into an ex-lover, it leaves his family drugged and his boyfriend jealous. Dave and Klaus voice some of their recent concerns.


	11. Sex Murder Party

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> BEFORE YOU READ: This is currently just a place holder for a later, fuller chapter. I just wanted to get a conversation going!

This wasn’t helping his shin splints. Every time Klaus’s foot connected with the unforgiving cement floor, pain ruptured up his leg and threatened to take him down at any second. This was a necessity though- a matter of life and death, if you will. If he slowed his thumping, sprinting footsteps at any point, his pursuers would have his ass for sure.

At least he wasn’t being shot at. He had the giant mass of crowds squished in around him to thank for that. A packed nightclub with drugged-out humans probably wasn’t the best place to start shooting, so Klaus was at least able to do one thing he always considered himself pretty damn good at; running and hiding.

He couldn’t shake these guys though. Contrary to what you may believe, it wasn’t the Anti-Super Organization. It wasn’t the commission. It wasn’t any kind of big-boss Umbrella Academy enemy at all, but Klaus was afraid that he may be more personally wary of _these_ people rather than the “big” players. Klaus knew all too well what angry drug-lord mobs were capable of. They weren’t just angry at Klaus either. They were out for blood.

Sure, he’s been evading some… “payments” for a couple years now and was probably close to number one on “Fonzy Frank’s” hit list, but this was turning into quite the production. His lungs were burning, his legs were wavering, and the sound of the ear-shattering bass accompanied by simultaneous crowd thumping was breaking down his psyche all at the same time. The most irritating part about this whole thing was that Klaus wasn’t even coming to the club for leisure or drugs or whatever his old ways would’ve commanded; he was here on business. How unprofessionally rude of these gangsters to be interrupting business hours.

His family probably wasn’t all too happy about it either. He was there with them all for Umbrella Academy stuff after all- that is, until he had a run in with Thing 1 and Thing 2 (Frank’s notoriously similar but miraculously unrelated hitmen). Really at this point, the only thing that kept Klaus going was the presence of Dave and Ben running alongside Klaus (as if they had to- they were invisible to everyone else currently) and the figure running ahead of him. It wasn’t a sibling, it wasn’t Dave… She was Parker Artemis, and she was Klaus’s ex-girlfriend.

So, let’s back up a bit.

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**EVERYTHING BELOW THIS LINE CONTAINS SEASON 2 SPOILERS**

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Hey, team. Assuming most of you have watched the second season, I'm going to go ahead and express some of my feelings and how that relates to my fanfics. The second season was insanely different that I expected which isn't a bad thing in many ways- it was a wild ride and some of the storylines were so cool. Specifically sticking to Klaus (and more specifically, Dave), I don't know... I'm glad they still made Dave super important to Klaus. It was such a relief. I think young-Dave is a cool idea, but I was pretty disappointed that we got no real reunion with Cody's Dave and Klaus. And now, I'm starting to really worry that we never will. If you guys caught that guy calling Dave "marine" going onto the bus at the end, you probably know what I'm talking about. If Dave and Klaus met in the army and now Dave's a marine, did they ever really meet at all? 

Is this TUA's way of trying to put a wrap on Dave's storyline? It's so frustrating because with how secretive they are, we'll never know until season 3 comes out and who knows when that will be. I personally am a little heartbroken right now and feel a little bit cheated by the fact that they may be just letting go of Dave. I don't know how to keep writing and attaching myself to a relationship that I can grow to love so much just for them to move on from it like it's just a silly side-story. I'm sure I'll get back to writing because I will never NOT love Dave and Klaus and the stories we've all spun of them, but my personal belief is that while Dave may evade death, he and Klaus never happened. And that sucks. A lot. 

I'm so curious to see what you guys think. I'm sorry this isn't the chapter you all deserve, but I'd love to talk to you all before trying to get back into the fanfiction game. Sound off in the comments! I need some hope for our boys. 


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